


Our New Life

by Redoctober1995



Category: Dragon Age
Genre: Body Modification, Chasind culture, Cultural Differences, Culture Shock, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Family, Fantasy Racism, Marriage, Mentions of past game events, Multi, headcanons, magical abilities, mentions of past rape
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-07
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-01-30 12:19:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 37,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12653397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redoctober1995/pseuds/Redoctober1995
Summary: A few months after the Inquisition was reformed into Divine Victoria’s Honor Guard, Cullen and the Inquisitor travel to South Reach to meet his family after almost twenty years away.But Cullen hasn’t told his family that he’s married, to a Chasind Witch no less.How will his family respond?Will they be rejected or be welcomed with open arms?





	1. A new chapter

Chapter One (REEDITED)

Isolda seemed nervous as they neared South Reach, her horse slowing down enough for Cullen to catch up.  
“Are you alright, Isolda?” Cullen asked placing his hand on her shoulder.  
Isolda Toryggdotten Fade-Wielder brushed some of her auburn rope like hair back behind her ear which was pierced with three gold rings, her mossy green eyes ringed with honey yellow looked like twin fade rifts. She plucked a pine cone from a pine tree and threw it into the brush, Barker, the Mabari Cullen had found in the Winter Palace charged off, kicking up dirt and rocks.  
“It’s just...,” she raised her hand and with a flick of her slender wrist covered it with a green flame, “Will your family accept that you married a Witch of the Wilds?”  
Cullen smiled placing his hand on his wife’s smaller one the flames subsided, “They know about you, kind of, and I’ve told them we were dating, and I just want to surprise them.” Isolda nodded knowing her husband meant well.  
“And besides they’re going to have more expectations about your clothing than your abilities,” he chuckled as Isolda gave him a sideways glance.  
Barker had returned from the brush on the side of the road, he held the small pinecone in his mouth triumphantly. Isolda shivered pulling her heavy grey corduroy jacket closer to her thin frame looking up at the valley town before them, “Let’s just get this over with while I still have the nerves,” and with that they continued into the valley.

Isolda looked around the village wall as they continued around the outside to Mia’s farm. The walls were quiet high and made of good stone. She wondered if the Darkspawn had attacked during the Blight, something to ask her father.  
They veered away from the wall toward a collection of small farms. Some of the fields were in the middle of harvest and many workers knelt as Cullen and she rode by. Isolda averted her eyes not wanting to see them kneel. The Free-Folk never knelt to complete strangers, expect to those they respected, of course these were Lowlanders.  
Cullen dismounted from his horse when they reached a small blue farmhouse with a field of wheat in the process of harvesting. The wood door of the small farmhouse swung open and a small group of people came out to greet them. Four adults and one child crowded around Cullen embracing him or patting his back, they looked like a picture perfect family. Isolda slowly dismounted and watched the happy family from a distance, Barker had tackled the child to the ground and was licking his face before charging back to her side. The small child saw her and ran up without hesitation, “You’re the In...inqui...inquisi...,” he struggled to say in awe.  
Giggling, Isolda tucked her skirt down as she knelt and gave him a soft mother’s smile patting his shaggy wheat colored hair, “You must be Callum,” the young boy smiled with gapped teeth, he couldn’t have been much older then Kirkland. “I like your hair,” Callum said beaming his smile as he reached for a thick red rope entwined with glass beads swirling it in his fingers marveling at the texture. Isolda blushed slightly at the compliment, this child was fearless.  
“I have a grandcub about your age,” Isolda said, “Perhaps you two could become friends.”  
Callum’s eyes widened, “You’re a grandma?”  
Before Isolda could answer another voice drew her attention. “So, brother, what’re these surprises you wrote about?” A slightly portly man with receding brown hair and grayish blue eyes asked. He had his arm around a woman older than Isolda who must’ve been his wife. “Cullen...is that who I think it is?” The woman asked.  
Cullen nodded waving Isolda over, “Yes, Mia, this is Isolda Toryggdotten,” Cullen towered over her wrapping his arm around her thin shoulders, “My wife.”  
Isolda nervously waved her hand and a couple of Cullen’s family flinched.  
“Wife?” Mia asked with very clear hatred lacing her voice.  
There was a long silence before a man who looked like a younger Cullen stepped forward to shake her hand.  
“Branson Rutherford, your Worship,” he looked down at Callum, “I see you’ve already met my son, Callum.”  
Isolda blushed and shook the younger Rutherford’s hand before Cullen introduced the rest of his family, his older sister Mia, who had the same nose, eyes and eyebrows as Cullen, and her husband Zachery, and his younger sister Rosalie, a young girl with long curly blonde hair and bright brown eyes curtsied much to Isolda’s discomfort. Mia remained at the back glaring at the Witch with wild red hair who took her baby brother from her.

The family went back into Mia’s warm home and sat down at a large table covered in platters of freshly cooked meats and steaming vegetables. Cullen pulled out Isolda’s chair for her before sitting beside her as Barker sat and placed a paw on Isolda’s thigh covered in her black leggings. “No Barker,” Cullen scolded the Mabari, who whined and gazed up at his master’s wife. “It’s alright, Husband,” Isolda stroked Barker’s head.  
“He won’t learn better if you keep babying him, Dear.” “When did you get married?” Rosalie asked handing Isolda a tankard of apple ale.  
“A few months ago at the Winter Palace,” Cullen answered holding the edge of Isolda’s plate as she cut her ham. “My cubs said they accepted him,” Isolda sighed leaning against Cullen.  
“Do you have any siblings, your Worship?” Zachery asked smacking both Branson’s and Rosalie’s shoulders.  
Isolda nodded, “Yes, I have a younger brother and my eldest cub has a cub of her own.”  
Branson and Rosalie stared at her, “My Cubs’ll be visiting in two day’s time to help us move all of our possessions into our home.”  
“Cubs?” Rosalie asked, “You mean like baby bears?”  
“No, my Cubs are just like me,” Isolda smiled at her sister-in-law, “Many tribesmen in the Free folk call me, Isolda the White She-Bear, so my Cubs have titles that fit with mine.  
“Free folk?” Zachery asked.  
“I have heard that most Lowlanders call us, The Chasind and Avvar,” Isolda looked nervous as she tried to explain her heritage.  
“What’re your children’s names?” Zachery asked.  
“Kalin is my eldest at twenty-three and her cub is named Kirkland he is eight and my son, Bronn is eighteen.”  
“Why did the Chas...I mean the Free-folk call you The White She-Bear?”  
“Because my mother is Maig the She-Bear of Donzo.”  
“What’s your brother’s name?” Rosalie asked changing the subject.  
“Axel Toryggson, he lives in Amaranthine with our father.”  
“Who’s your father?”  
“Torygg Odinson Light-Bringer.”  
Cullen’s family stared at her for a long silence, “Your father’s the Hero of Fereldan?” Mia asked.  
“Yes, but I haven’t spoken with him for many years now.”  
As the younger Rutherfords and Mia’s husband continued asking Isolda about herself, Mia stood and stepped into the kitchen Cullen excused himself and followed her. Mia was bracing white knuckled against the wash basin.  
“What’s the problem, Mia?” Cullen asked keeping his distance.  
“How could you have married a dirty witch?” Mia asked as calmly as she could.  
Cullen watched his older sister, “Mia, I told you Isolda and I were together,”  
“You married a dirty Witch that has two bastard children!” Mia was just barely containing her rage, “And a bastard grandchild?”  
“Mia, I’ve faced a lot of demons since I became a Templar, Isolda’s one of the few people that have treated me as a man instead of a nameless suit of Silverite Armor and hands made for killing mages. If you can’t except her then we’ll just move up to Amaranthine.”  
“Cullen, all I ever wanted was for us to be together as a family again before you left, before Mum and Dad died and before the Blight,”  
“We can still be a family, Mia.”  
“What makes you think I’d let those freaks in my house?!” Mia wasn’t even trying to hide her anger.  
Cullen stared at his sister before exiting, “Mia, Isolda had nothing to do with what happened.”  
“She’s just as guilty as far as I’m concerned,” Mia muttered under her breath, her face was losing its redness as she collected a platter of frosted fruit cakes and reentered the dining room.  
Cullen sat down in his chair and drank from his tankard of ale but he stopped when Isolda gently placed her hand on to his smiling up at him.  
“I think you’ve had enough, Husband,” she whispered in his ear in a motherly way.  
Cullen smiled and leaned in to kiss her much to the jeering of Branson and Zachery.

“So, what’d you think of my family?” Cullen asked as he folded up his shirt, Barker was curled up at the foot of the bed snoring. Isolda unbuttoned her blue outer dress and her grey green inner dress and folded both neatly setting them on the back of a chair leaving her in her silk shift.  
“I don’t think Mia likes me.”  
“She was like that when we were kids,” Cullen wrapped his arms around Isolda, “Always planning on us to stay together.”  
“But you can be a family again.”  
Cullen sighed pulling his wife into his lap, “She’ll have to come to terms that we’re married,” he rested his head on her chest, “And I’m never leaving you.”  
Isolda giggled and hugged her husband stroking his hair, “I love you, Husband.”  
“I love you, Wife.” They kissed and lay down under the covers. A few minutes rolled past before Cullen spoke, “The Arl is holding a festival tomorrow in our honor.”  
Isolda murmured something but Cullen didn’t hear it as he drifted off to sleep.

Cullen was thrust awake when he heard a scream. Isolda was doubled over clutching her stump and Barker was frantically nozzling her to see what was wrong. Cullen jumped up and dug through their luggage looking for her draught. Isolda’s flesh was starting to stretch and rip giving way to blood stained fur as her cries deepened into roars as black smoke billowed around her. Cullen grabbed her, opened her mouth as sharp fangs pushed out her human teeth which fell to the bed covers and poured the draught down her throat. Isolda convulsed but stomached the foul liquid. Cullen held her tightly as her body slowly shrank back to its true size and her flesh knitted back together. Her roars of agony quieted into sobs of pain before becoming a dull ache. After what felt like an hour, Cullen looked at Isolda’s small body and found she had fallen asleep. Smiling, Cullen kissed her lips and laid back slowly drifting off to sleep.


	2. Meeting the Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cullen and Isolda prepare for the festival and have a heart to heart with Rosalie and Branson.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This work is inspired by Blood isn’t always thicker by DietCokeofEvil. I will re-edit this story if he or she asks me too.

Chapter Two(RE-EDIT)

Mia was in the kitchen preparing potatoes for breakfast when Cullen opened and closed the door to the spare room. Mia almost didn’t hear him because of the rain outside.  
“How’d you sleep, Little Brother?” Mia asked over her shoulder.  
“Well enough,” Cullen answered with a more curt tone as he pulled on his coat.  
“Your wife woke us with her little antics,” Mia said crossly as she checked the tea.  
“Sorry about that,” Cullen drank some of the tea, “Isolda’s arm has been giving her trouble for the last few months.”  
“But her arm seemed healed yesterday,” Mia said feigning curiosity.  
“She develops phantom pains from time to time, but they’ve been getting better.”  
“I see.” Mia said turning back to her potato, “Is she still asleep?”  
“No, she left at the crack of dawn to explore the forests.”  
“She should be careful, Zachery went out earlier, claimed he heard a bear late last night,” Cullen froze, “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you, Little Brother?”  
“Mia, somethings in this world are best left alone,” Cullen said as he pulled up his hood and opened the door, “Now, if you’re quiet finished, I’m going out to find my wife.”  
Mia watched Cullen through the small window as he trekked off towards town.  
‘I’ll never stop hating that Bog Devil, Little Brother,’ she thought as she turned her attention back to the potatoes she was cutting. After an hour, Zachery opened the door and hung up his coat on the peg before hugging her and kissing her cheek.  
“Welcome home, dear,” Mia whispered as she turned to kiss him, “Did you find that bear?”  
Zachery shook his head, “Couldn’t find any tracks either,” he sat down at the table, “Must’ve run off before the rain.”  
“Oh,” Mia said setting a plate of fried eggs and potato slices on the table for him, “I’d bet that Isolda’d know.”  
Zachery looked up at his wife, “Honey, what’re you talking about, bears are a common enough sight here around this time of year.”  
Mia sighed, “I suppose you’re right, dear.” She set her own breakfast across from Zachery. ‘That Bog Devil knows something,’ she thought angrily eating her pouched eggs.  
“Speaking of which, where’d Cullen and Isolda get off to?”  
“Cullen said something about going out to find her, I think.”  
“Hope they’re back by this evening, wouldn’t want them to miss the party Arl Bryland is throwing for them.”  
“One can only hope,” Mia muttered under the sound of the rain hitting the tile roof.

Rosalie rushed to open the door when she heard knocking, letting Cullen and Isolda inside hugging both of them. Her small cozy farmhouse smelled of backed beard and sugary treats and she chattered on as she worked, talking about the party.  
“You don’t mind do you, brother?” Rosalie asked, “When you told us you were coming, I couldn’t control myself. A lot of families from Honnleath moved here and they wanted to see you and then the Arl decided to throw a festival. I’d already told him the Inquisitor was here and you were married!” She clapped a hand over her mouth and her cheeks flushed bright red, “Was I supposed to say that?”  
Cullen placed a hand on his younger sister’s shoulder, “It’s fine, Rosalie, I didn’t tell you because I wanted it to be a surprise.”  
“Oh thank the Maker,” Rosalie released the breath she was holding, “Branson always said I couldn’t keep a secret to save my life.”  
“Anyway, it’s nice of the Arl to do this, isn’t Dear?” Cullen said Isolda nodded.  
“Good,” Rosalie declared clapping her hands, “Go out to the barn and visit with Branson, I wanna getta know my new sister.” Cullen laughed as he was pushed out the door and Isolda’s eyes misted grateful for Rosalie’s eager acceptance.  
“Now that he’s gone...,” Rosalie grinned sitting at the table with Isolda taking her smaller hand in her own, “How’re you settling? I know you’ve been here for a day...Oh Maker...sorry I just realized that I’m the sister-in-law of the Herald of Andraste.”  
“Please, Rosalie, please just call me Isolda,” she smiled at the young woman’s energy, “I’m not the Inquisitor anymore.”  
“But you’ll always be the Herald and Inquisitor like the Hero’ll always be the Hero...,” she stopped for a moment, “And he’s your father!”  
Isolda smiled as Rosalie fell into a giggle fit. “You’ve gotta tell me everything about Cullen and yourself. Was it love at first sight? How’d you tell him? Oh, so many questions!”  
Isolda smiled and began talking.

Cullen found Branson in the barn with Zachery and Callum. Barker charged off plowing into the little boy who squealed in delight.  
“I was kicked out so Rosalie could interrogate my wife.” Cullen said smiling.  
Zachery bellowed a laugh as Branson climbed down from the rafters.  
“So,” Branson said, “Did you find that bear last night?”  
Cullen coughed up some water he was drinking, “Nah, It must’ve run off before the rain.”  
“Uncle Cullen, can I ride your horse, Da never lets me ride the ones back home.” Callum asked.  
“Callum, you know the horses back home belong to the Grey Wardens and they’re very busy,” Branson scolded his son.  
“Branson, it’s fine, he must be old enough to learn,” Cullen said ruffling the boy’s hair, “If you’re okay with it I can take back him back to Mia’s and show him then bring him to the party later.”  
Callum’s face darkened but Zachery swooped the boy up in his arms making Callum squeal, “That’d be a great idea, besides you both leave tomorrow.”  
“You don’t live in South Reach?”  
“No, we live at Vigil’s Keep in Amaranthine, the Wardens needed a blacksmith.” The brief answer letting Cullen know not to pry. The three men talk as Callum chased Barker before Rosalie poked her head in.  
“Cullen, Isolda and I are headed to Mia’s to pick out clothes for tonight and I’ll do her hair,” she shut the door leaving the three men confused.  
“Well, I’d say they’re friends,” Branson laughed, Cullen grinned thankful that Rosalie took to Isolda so easily after Mia’s reaction. Not that it was hard being around his near silent wife.  
“How’s she been?” Zachery asked, “Back home in Jader there was a clan of Avvars that would trade with us when the army wasn’t around.”  
“I’m sure it was tough for her at first, but she learned Common very quickly and I think she’s used to hardship by now.”  
“She’s very pretty.”  
“She’s the most beautiful woman in Thedas.” Cullen agreed.

“So, how was Mia this morning?” Rosalie asked, “She seemed cross last night.” They were walking down the road back to her house after picking out an outfit for Isolda to wear for the festival. Rosalie had squealed like a schoolgirl when she saw what Isolda had packed away and begged to borrow a dress for the party, which Isolda stated that she was quiet a bit smaller than Rosalie so her dresses might not fit her. But they’d found a dress that did fit her.  
“I didn’t see her this morning, she must have still been asleep,” Isolda said as she pulled her coat closer to her, “She doesn’t like me.”  
Rosalie nodded nervously, “She did have...plans for Cullen, you sort of messed with them.”  
“Plans,” Isolda queried, “Cullen wrote to her, telling her that we were together. And we talked about it last night.”  
“I know but....” Rosalie struggled to find the right words, “Mia wanted Cullen to comeback and start a farm and she had a girl picked out for him, she was planning to introduce them at the party tonight.”  
“Are arranged marriages a common Lowland tradition?” Isolda asked.  
“Mia just wants things a certain way. She didn’t approve of Branson’s choice to marry against her wishes, Simone was so loving, even to Mia who was very mean to her. She died from the flu two years ago, I don’t think Branson has truly gotten over it.”  
“Callum is such a lovely boy,” they walked for a while before Isolda spoke, “What should I expect? Does she not like me because I’m not a Lowlander?”  
“I don’t know, she might slowly accept you, I mean I see that Cullen clearly loves you.”  
They walked in silence for a while before Rosalie asked.  
“How do marriages work for the Chas...the Free folk?”  
“Tribe leaders usually use arranged marriage as a way to settle disputes,” Isolda said shrugging, “But most Free folk men go out and steal a bride from a different tribe to strengthen their own.”  
“Wait, your men really go out and kidnap women?”  
“Yes, the man must prove his strength, cunning, and perseverance,” Isolda explained.  
Rosalie looked absolutely disgusted, “What kind of monster would do such a thing?”  
Isolda stared at the young woman, “You don’t understand how terrible life is in the True South,” Isolda said touching her necklace, “Only the strong can live there.”  
Isolda stopped and thought for a moment, “Rosalie, a man can own his blade or his wife, not both and if a woman doesn’t like her husband, she kills him in the night and if she is carrying his child, she can go off to find a witch to end her pregnancy. I have ended a handful of unwanted pregnancies.”  
“But who’d allow any of that to happen?”  
“Rosalie, my first husband was a proud Eirn warrior from the Ice Shelves near the end of the Frostbacks, he killed five warriors from my tribe when he stole me, he raped and abused me for six months until I carried his daughter and that night I stole his sword and burned him alive. My father had killed twenty Eirn warriors that day to save me from his camp,” Isolda looked up at the sky as she touched a coin sized bronze disc in her hair near her eyebrow, “I was thirteen.”  
Rosalie stared at the smaller woman in disbelief.  
“My second husband was a hunter from a tribe called the Scalefoot from the Rocky Cliffs of the Frozen Sea, he was far kinder and he loved me, loved my daughter like his own, we made love on the night I ran away with him and every night for a year before I carried his son,” Isolda sighed as she touched the smooth black glass necklace above her chest, “I stayed with Adolph for many years before the Blight took him from me. I still miss him.”  
Rosalie watched Isolda for a moment, “What about my brother?”  
“Cullen is a strong and loving man, we’ve faced many demons just to be together,” Isolda’s voice was barely a whisper over the wind, “He loves my cubs like they’re his own. I plan to stay with him till our deaths do us part.”  
They reached the house and placed their bundles inside.  
“C’mon let’s go wash up in the creek, I have a new shampoo I’ve been waiting to use,” Rosalie said, “Unless you want to bath in private?”  
“I could use some help with my hair, sister.”

“Amaranthine huh, is it nice?” Cullen asked Branson as the walked down the road to Mia’s home, Zachery had left to go to find Mia at the festival.  
“It’s much warmer up there, and there’s plenty of work to be done with the Grey Wardens,” Branson nodded, “Actually, Simone had gotten me a private audience with the Warden Commander so I could show my work.”  
Branson watched Callum chase Barker, “Hard to believe he’s half Free folk, isn’t it?”  
Cullen looked at his brother, “Callum’s half Free folk?”  
“Did Mia say anything to you today?”  
“She did,” Cullen shook his head, “Still has that dream.”  
“Yeah she does, especially since Ma and Da died she became the family’s head, wanting a say in all of our important choices. She was furious when I ran away with not just a Free folk huntress but the daughter of the Hero of Ferelden, she was absolutely frothing when I returned with Simone on my arm and Callum on her chest. Simone was such a loving and protective mother and she only treated Mia with kindness. She died a couple of years ago. I can only imagine what Mia’s first thought was when you said Isolda was your wife.”  
“I’m so sorry, Branson,” Cullen grabbed his brother’s shoulder, “I wish I’d been here for you.”  
“No, you were running the Inquisition and everything,” he smiled, “Commander Odinson told me what he heard from King Alistair, I only told Mia you were alive. After Simone died I stayed in Amaranthine at the behest of Commander Odinson wanting to keep his tribe as together as possible which included Callum and myself. I think it’s a good choice since Mia hated Simone and now Callum for what happened.”  
“Yes, she told me she considers Isolda just as responsible.”  
“Well, if it doesn’t work out down here, you’re more than welcome to live in Amaranthine, I’m sure Commander Odinson’ll want to see his daughter and new son-in-law.”  
“Please, don’t remind me.”  
“You suppose she had plans for me as well?” Cullen asked after a long silence.  
“She did,” Branson admitted, “Had a plot of land picked out for you and a girl for you to marry.” They walked in silence.  
When they reached Mia’s they took Callum to see the horses right away letting him ride around the pasture.  
When they were done Cullen went inside to change.

“How does your hair stay like this?” Rosalie asked as she soaked Isolda’s long rope-like hair in a small washing bucket, taking care to not mess with the hundreds of black glass beads, dozen bronze and silver discs, and golden rings entwined in the ropes in a way that must’ve meant something.  
“My hair just grows like this,” Isolda laughed as Rosalie drained the soap and water, “My tribesmen have grown our hair like this for so long that our name loosely translates as the Twisted Hairs.”  
Rosalie giggled as she soaked more soap into her hair like a sponge.  
“Could you do this with my hair?”  
“Your hair isn’t curly enough.”  
“How do you put it up with one ha...I’m sorry that was really insensitive to ask.”  
“It’s alright, Cullen helped me back at Skyhold.”  
Rosalie stared at her in disbelief, “He did?”  
“I had to show him how but yes.”  
“That’s love right there.”


	3. Lines are Drawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The festival starts and battles are assessed.

Chapter Three(RE-EDIT) 

Cullen walked around the party, many people had already arrived and the festivities were about to start. He was speaking with Zachery and Mia when he felt a slender hand grab his arm, when he turned he found Isolda burying her face in his chest before looking up at him. Cullen smiled and wrapped his arms around her leaning down to kiss her forehead.  
“You look beautiful, Dear,” Cullen stared at his small wife in a light green silk dress with a royal blue brocade shawl laced with silver thread, a small wedding gift from an Orlesian noble woman. Cullen couldn’t remember her name.  
“You’re quiet handsome yourself, Husband,” Isolda whispered kissing him, “I should take you somewhere private.”  
Rosalie coughed to get their attention, “I think that’d raise quiet a few eyebrows, sister.”  
“Why, he’s my husband?” Isolda asked pulling Cullen closer.  
“Let’s get some food, Dear,” Cullen suggested leading Isolda to the get some dinner. Isolda thanked Mia and Rosalie for their delicious cooking. After dinner, the Arl asked for Cullen and Isolda to join him on the stage.  
Clearing his throat to speak, “As I’m sure most of you know, Ser Cullen Rutherford grew up in Honnleath, leaving to join the Templars when he was thirteen, After a distinguished career, Ser Rutherford was recruited by Seeker Pentaghast to train and advice the Inquisition’s army. The same army lead by the woman who became his wife,” the Arl raised a hand to Isolda who’d been watching Cullen as he fidgeted, “Lady Inquisitor Isolda Toryggdotten Fade-Wielder!” Only two thirds of the crowd cheered, many glared daggers at her, “Because of their Inquisition, we can live in our peace with our freedom.” The crowd cheered again, “Tonight we celebrate these honored heroes and extend our hand to invite them to join our community!” The Arl turned the stage back to the small band and pulled Cullen and Isolda to the side, “Your sister mentioned you’re looking to start a farm, I already have a plot ready for you.”  
Cullen and Isolda looked at each other and then to the Arl, “Did I misspeak?”  
“Arl Bryland,” Cullen started, “I don’t know the first thing about farming, Captain Davison had invited me to train your City Guardsman.”  
“I should’ve checked with you first,” Bryland thought for a moment, “It’s weird Davison never mentioned that.”  
“We’re just looking for a small cottage, perhaps near the forest.”  
“I think I know of a place, it’s a bit old but my builders will remedy that free of charge.”  
“Thank you, my lord,” Isolda said curtsying forward slightly.  
“Come see me tomorrow, now go enjoy your party.” The Arl shook their hands and watched as they walked off.

Mia watched Isolda as she sat at a table speaking with Rosalie while Cullen was speaking with an old man from Honnleath.  
“You said he was unmarried,” Mia turned to see a woman in a blue dress standing beside her glaring at Isolda.  
“I didn’t know, Alexi,” she said glaring at Isolda, “I thought he would grow up and see her for the creature she really is.”  
The two woman watched the couple as they got up to dance.  
“He’s still as handsome as I remember,” Alexi sighed.  
They’d grown up together in Honnleath and they’d been friends for many years and Mia knew Cullen had had a crush on her before he left for Templar training. Alexi had married but her husband died shortly after the Blight. Mia knew Alexi was meant for Cullen.  
“Do you think they really love each other?”  
“I refuse to let Cullen fall like Branson,” Mia rushed off and grabbed Cullen’s arm, “There’s someone I’d like you to meet, Little Brother.”  
She pulled him over to Alexia, “You remember Alexi Senwick, don’t you, Little Brother?”  
Cullen took a moment and smiled, “Maker, I almost didn’t recognize you,” he reached out his hand, “It’s nice to see you again, Alexi, how’ve you been?”  
Alexi smiled sweetly, “Much better after seeing you again,” she bit her lower lip as she felt his arm admiring the muscle, “You’ve become a very handsome man, Cullen.”  
Cullen coughed pulling his arm from her grasp in a way that looked like he wasn’t uncomfortable and waved Isolda over, “Have you met my wife, Isolda?” He rested his hand on Isolda’s shoulder as she shook Alexi’s hand. Alexi looked Isolda over, noting she was a good five inches taller than this witch, a few years younger, her breasts were also much larger, and she had both of her arms.  
“I’ve heard so much about you, Your Worship,” Alexi smiled, “My little brother was an officer in the Inquisition, I’m so glad to finally meet you in person.”  
“Your brother was an officer? What was his name?” Isolda asked holding her ground as the two women scrutinized her like Black Lizard Lions watching a deer drinking from a river.  
Alexi sized up who she had to beat while they chatted, despite Isolda’s small size and her being older than Cullen, she was beautiful, her auburn rope like hair was pulled over her shoulder like it was hiding her stump, her yellow ringed green eyes seemed like a wild beast staking its claim, the power this small woman radiated the same authority as a queen from her subjects or a mother from her children. This wasn’t going to be easy for Alexi, she’d heard the rumors of course, that this woman had chained the Mage Rebellion with words alone, had brought the Grey Wardens to kneel, had prevented Orlais’ collapse at the hands of an Old God and quelled the Oxman in the north. She was the widow of a farmer.  
“Well it’s nice to meet you, Ms Senwick,” Isolda continued smiling as she held on to Cullen, “Hathom was always eager to please, excuse me,” she said as Branson whisked her off into the crowd of villagers dancing, Rosalie followed shortly to grab Cullen.  
“Thanks,” Cullen said as he and Rosalie waltzed around the town square with a dozen other couples, “That’s her?”  
“Did Branson tell you?” Rosalie asked knowing the answer, “It’s a good thing you married on your terms.”  
“I had a crush on her when we were kids.”  
“And now?”  
“Isolda is my heart, thank you for liking her so easily.”  
“She’s amazing, Mia needs to let go of her hatred for what happened.”  
Cullen looked at his little sister, bitter words never sat well with her image, they danced in silence for a while.  
“Has she picked out a husband for you yet?”  
“Undoubtedly.”  
“And you don’t like that?”  
“I want to pick out my husband like you and Branson had with your wives.”  
“And when Mia hates you for it?”  
“Then I’ll live with his family.”  
Cullen stopped and held his sister, “Are you sure you want that, Rosalie?”  
Rosalie smirked, “Cullen, I’m eighteen years old,” She hugged her caring brother, “It’s about time to move out of Mia’s looming shadow.”  
Cullen nodded as they danced some more before he faintly heard Isolda laugh over the music. The dance soon ended and Rosalie lead Cullen to Isolda.

“Isolda, I was hoping that you’d introduce me to your daughter, Kalin,” Branson asked as he danced with Isolda, he was surprised she knew how to waltz.  
Isolda stifled a laugh, “I don’t think you would survive Kalin.”  
“Don’t forget, Isolda, I stole your sister, Simone.”  
Isolda’s laugh carried over the music, “Simone was a brave woman who could stalk the most paranoid of Snow Deer, I wished I had known her better.”  
“Thanks,” Branson smiled watching his son play with other kids, “Who taught you our dances?”  
“Divine Victoria,” Branson stopped abruptly and stared at Isolda, “No really, she taught me to waltz for the Winter Palace, and Cullen taught me this dance to regain my balance after my injury.” She wiggled her arm to prove her point.  
Branson noticed Rosalie was coming over with Cullen, “It’s been fun, sister,” he said kissing her hand before placing it in Cullen’s as the next dance started. He saw Alexi at the edge of the dance with annoyance in her eyes. Rosalie noticed and laughed.

“Having fun?” Cullen asked as he held Isolda tightly as they danced, “I’ve seen a lot of people at you.”  
“No doubt as many as you,” Isolda smiled, “It has been fun, but I’d like some private time with you.”  
Cullen smirked and kissed Isolda in the center of the dancing crowd for all of South Reach to see. Isolda’s teeth pulled on his lower lip as they broke the kiss. Cullen smiled as he rested his hand on the small of Isolda’s back, “Soon, Wife, Zachery wanted to introduce me to a friend of his from his Tourney days, then we’ll go.”  
Isolda nodded, “I’m happy that you’re getting to see your old friends,” her thoughts turned to her tribe when she returned with a bronze short sword and Kalin on her breast, “I think the Arl wants a dance.”  
“I’ll try to avoid Alexi.”  
“She’ll grab you at some point, Husband.”  
“She’s very persistent.”  
Isolda thought for a moment, “Allow her one dance, Husband.”  
Cullen smiled and kissed Isolda as the song ended before the Arl swept her away and Zachery lead him in the direction of the bbq pit.

“I don’t think this’ll be easy, Mia,” Alexi said, “He hasn’t looked at me once.” They turned as a group of young women approached.  
“Is that really him, Mia?” a woman with brown hair asked.  
“I don’t remember him being so handsome,” another said.  
“I bet he’s a wild beast,” another sighed ogling him despite being married.  
“He married the Herald?” You said he was single.”  
“I know, Alice,” Mia muttered.  
“He chose a Bog Devil? What about Alexi? You’re just gonna let them be together?”  
“Not if I can help it,” Alexi said clenching her hands into fists.  
“No brother of mine is staying with some Bog Devil Witch,” she looked at the women, “You know what to do.” The women nodded and disappeared into the crowd.

When Isolda was done dancing with Arl Bryland, she sat down at the table with Rosalie and some of her friends. They were talking about how bad the winter could be this year, which made Isolda smirk. When she was a young girl of barely seven years old her grandfather, Odin Hidison Spade-Hands, compared Autumn and Winter. Autumn is a kind mother who always kisses her husband and has warm food for her children. Winter is a fierce shield wife who will fuck her man blind and leave him in the snow to see if he will survive and give her strong sons or fierce daughters.  
Isolda noticed Alexi was finally dancing with Cullen a while later but his eyes were on her, she offered him a smile and returned to Rosalie and her friends.

“You’ve made quiet the impression bringing her with you,” Alexi said as she and Cullen danced, his eyes were on his wife.  
“So I’ve noticed.”  
“Is it wise to marry a Chasind witch? Plenty of people from Honnleath remeber what happened.”  
“I don’t care about what people think of our marriage, I love Isolda with my heart and nothing will change that. If people won’t accept that then we’ll settle someplace that does.” Cullen replied.  
“That’d be a shame,” Alexi said pulling herself closer to Cullen grabbing his arm, “Makes me wish I’d begged you to stay all of those years ago. Perhaps you’d like someone to visit with and reminisce about old times, I live here in town and My door’s always open to you.”  
Cullen pulled away, “I don’t think my wife’d appreciate me doing that, now if you’ll excuse me, I’m quiet tired,” he walked off to find Isolda. “That didn’t go to well,” Mia said.  
“Maybe I should change my strategy.”  
  
“What’s wrong with her eyes?” “I’ve heard she fucks demons in the moonlight.”  
“I heard she sacrificed babies to Darkspawn for her powers.”  
“Why is she even here among civilized folk and not with those other Bog Devils?”  


Isolda closed her eyes and slowed her breath, she clenched and unclenched her hand before she opened her eyes and looked over her shoulder and saw the women, with a light smirk she brought up her hand and was about to deftly snap her fingers when Cullen grabbed Isolda’s hand and wrapped her in his arms, “Time to call it a night, Dear.”  
Isolda wholeheartedly agreed, they said their goodbyes and left for Mia’s farm. Cullen pushed Isolda against a wall in the barn and furiously claimed her mouth. Isolda’s hand was untying Cullen’s trousers. They both groaned and hung their heads when they heard Mia and Zachery approach the house.  
“I need you inside me, Husband.”  
“We’ll find time tomorrow, Dear.” Cullen kissed her forehead as they straightened thems before entering the house.

Cullen bolted up in a cold sweat and tried not to scream that night, Isolda’s hand pulled him into her arm and placed her head on her chest.  
“They cannot reach you, Husband,” she whispered, “I’m here for you.”  
Cullen relaxed into her arms and leaned back into the bed, he pressed a kiss to her lips and wrapped his arms around her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the kudos.  
> 


	4. A New Start

Chapter Four(RE-EDIT)

Cullen had a dream that night.  
He was having this dream nearly every night for a couple of months now.  
It was about a young girl, she had long wheat colored hair styled like Isolda’s, but far fewer adornments, pulled over her shoulder. She looked so much like his sisters, a soft square face with high cheekbones, a dusting of freckles across the bridge of her curved nose like Isolda’s and a wide smile of perfect teeth as she spun in place showing off her field grey lambswool coat. But the feature that Cullen recognized most were her eyes, they were shaped like Isolda’s, hazel-green almonds ringed with bright yellow.  
Cullen felt a weird sense of pride when he saw the girl but he wasn’t completely sure why.

Cullen opened his eyes when the bed shifted as Isolda got up and got dressed.  
“You going somewhere?” Cullen asked rubbing sleep from his eyes.  
Isolda nodded, “I was going to collect herbs in the forest with Rosalie, we should be back by mid morning.”  
Cullen watched as she shimmied her hips and thighs into her dresses, bending forward at just the right angle for him to see her trimmed womanhood in the early morning light.  
Cullen got up, grabbing Isolda’s elbow he pulled her into his lap and roughly grabbed her large thighs as he bit at her neck. Isolda squirmed under his teeth grinding her womanhood against Cullen’s hand as she brought his other hand to her breasts.  
Cullen traced the pale scar lines on her left shoulder down to her stump, the feathered cars had healed considerably in the past year, but they still glowed a light green when her phantom pains emerged.  
Isolda had told Cullen to go find a pretty woman to make his wife instead of her, Cullen had locked themselves in Isolda’s room for twelve hours proving to her just how much he loved her.  
Isolda grabbed his face and crashed her lips to his and gave a long throaty growl as his fingers entered her. She bit his lower lip before her tongue snaked its way into his mouth. Their tongues danced around before Isolda’s tongue tip wrapped around Cullen’s holding him there. They battled for a full minute before they separated for breath.  
“Can you two lovebirds keep it down please?” Zachery asked as he knocked on the door.  
Isolda picked up one of her boots and hurled it at the door hitting it with a loud THUD, earning a laugh from the Orlesian man on the other side.  
“We really shouldn’t do this here, Love,” Cullen said between laughing.  
Isolda pouted but stood up and pulled her cotton stockings on, “Fine, but we’re not stopping tonight.”  
“When are your kids getting here?”  
“Bronn said they’d be here around late morning,” Isolda smiled.  
Cullen nodded as he stood to pull on his clothes, Isolda gave a lite kiss on his cheek and left. Barker lifted his head and grumbled.  
“I know, Boy,” Cullen muttered scratching the dog’s ear, “She’s a handful.”

“What do you mean you’re moving?” Mia asked, “You just got here-there’s no way you could’ve found a place so quickly.”  
“The Arl offered us a cottage to stay in while we’re here. Isolda and I figured it’d be easier on you and Zachery, we get the privacy and you get your house back...” Cullen muttered as Mia fixed him with a glare, her behavior toward Isolda was getting on his nerves, “You’ll be able to sleep through the night.”  
“Well, if you’re wife could just...”  
“It was me, Mia,” Cullen interrupted quietly, “I’ve had nightmares for a long time now. She helps me fight off my Demons as I help to quell her’s.”  
Mia didn’t say anything for a long time.  
“So tell me,” Cullen looked up, “Why don’t you like Isolda?”  
“She’s just not who I would’ve pictured you with,” Mia did looked up at her younger brother, “Surely you must know that much of Ferelden doesn’t care for the Chasind and marriages are often viewed with disgust. Even if you are the Commander and the Inquisitor.”  
“I don’t care. I love Isolda, not the Inquisitor or a Free-Folk woman. Nothing will change that. If you won’t accept her then there might not be a place for you in our lives.”  
Mia stood, “Dammit Cullen, are you willing to put that Witch over your family?” Cullen nodded, “I shouldn’t be surprised, you ignored us for years.”  
Cullen nodded, “And I’m sorry I didn’t visit sooner. Mia, I could spend the day explaining myself-I might one day-but, I wasn’t a good man for a long time, I allowed my hatred of mages to cloud my judgement in Kirkwall. I persecuted a lot of innocent people.” Cullen rubbed his neck, “And then Isolda was flung into my life, and she showed me a better way to live.”  
They stared at each other, “I’m not choosing Isolda over our family, Rosalie, Branson, and even Zachery have all accepted Isolda. I love her Mia, you’re going to have to accept that sooner or later.”  
“NO!” Mia’s face was beet red and she shook as she spat, “There’s plenty of women around here who can do everything that she does for you. ONES WHO AREN’T BOG DEVILS!”  
They heard a gasp from the door and turned to see Zachery and Isolda standing there. Zachery was staring at his wife in disbelief and Isolda was looking at Mia.  
“You think I’m a Bog Devil, huh?” Isolda’s voice was ice cold.  
Mia blinked and Isolda had somehow crossed the room and was mere inches from Mia’s face as an icy mist surrounded them. Mia swore she saw the mossy green in Isolda’s eyes bleed into pure yellow as what looked like snow floated in the mist.  
“Honey,” Cullen placed a hand on Isolda’s shoulder, Isolda leaned back at the contact, her eyes returned to normal, “Let’s go pack our bags.”  
Mia turned back to her work trying to ignore her husband’s angered glare.  
“What did your father say when they met me?” Zachery asked after a while in a low voice. Mia said nothing.  
“Your family had to hold him back from attacking me with a butcher’s cleaver all the while he was cursing you for bringing an Orlesian Stray home.”  
Again Mia said nothing.  
Zachery muttered something in Dales Speak before stomping off to the barn, unaware of the tears dripping down Mia’s cheeks.

They waited at Rosalie’s house until Isolda’s children showed up around noon, Isolda was very focused in looking out the window and Cullen was using a wet stone to polish his longsword. Rosalie clicked her heels nervously as Branson and Callum were getting their stuff ready to depart.  
Everything was tense.  
“Isolda,” Rosalie asked, “What’re your children like?”  
Isolda shrugged, “Bronn is the only mage I have and Kalin is a Warrior.”  
“Isolda,” Branson said poking his head in the door, “There’s a woman outside who wants to see you.”  
Isolda and Cullen stood and walked to the door, Rosalie set her knitting aside and followed.  
Rosalie was taken aback by the tall boy and woman outside, the woman looked like a cross between Cullen and Isolda, her squarish face was set in a firm line like Cullen and her nose had a slight bend in it like Isolda’s. Her honey brown eyes were very alert and her long wheat blonde hair was braided in a manner similar to Isolda’s as it was swept over her shoulder. She wore shiny chainmail over her finely tailored padded coat and a very long sword and a round shield both strapped to her back with two smaller swords strapped to her wide hips. The boy looked like the woman, with the same golden wheat hair but his was far more like Isolda’s, his eyes were a muddy blue like river water. Despite his being about Isolda’s height, Rosalie could tell the boy was young, his small smile had missing teeth.  
The pair stood in front of a wagon covered with a grey tarp pulled by two brown horses. A young man stepped out of the wagon. The man was the spitting image of Isolda, same soft face, same soft green eyes with yellow rings, and the same small smile of perfect teeth, but his auburn hair was cut short barely a palm’s width and his clean robes were far better suited for a circle mage than a witch. His skinny fingers were gripping a staff of dark wood nearly as tall as him.  
Isolda hugged the much taller people and they spoke for a while in their tongue.  
Cullen walked up and hugged the woman, “Glad you could make it so quickly.”  
“It was no problem,” the woman replied in a deep warm voice.  
Cullen waved over his siblings, “Rosalie, Branson, this is Kalin Isoldotten the Golden She Bear and her son, Kirkland Kalinson and Bronn Isoldason.”  
Rosalie extended her hand and was surprised by the woman’s strong grip. Branson had the gumption to kiss Kalin’s knuckles, a move that Kalin seemed interested by and Bronn nervously shook their hands.

The cottage was adorable, a small stone and wood structure was perfect for the couple-a small kitchen with a living area and two bedrooms overlooking a small lake and valley.  
Rosalie squealed as she saw it and grabbed Isolda’s hand leading her into the valley. Cullen sighed and helped to unload the wagon with Branson, Kalin and Bronn as Kirkland and Callum played with Barker.  
“When we’re done here, we can into town and get whatever you don’t...,” she looked at Isolda, who was sitting on the ground silently twisting a flower in her fingers. Rosalie came over and wrapped her arm around her shoulder, “Are you alright?”  
“It is not the first time someone has called me Bog Devil,” Rosalie saw a tear roll down Isolda’s cheek, “I just thought people here would be more accepting.”  
Rosalie took Isolda’s hand in her own, “Cullen told me what happened, and I doubt I can ever really make it up to you. She just lashed out at Cullen because he hasn’t visited in over a decade, and then he turns up with you and plans for his life without first telling Mia.”  
Isolda wiped the tears from her eyes, “Cullen wanted to visit you so badly, after we defeated Corypheus, the first thing he wanted to do was visit you all. But things just kept us busy and then the Exalted Council happened and my injury...”  
“You’ve done nothing wrong, Isolda,” Rosalie offered a small smile, “Now let’s get these in some water.”

Cullen and Isolda cooked a dinner for Isolda’s cubs, Rosalie and Branson for thanking them for the help and Rosalie’s work on the party. Talk shifted around alot from Rosalie asking Kalin and Bronn about their lives to later on Kalin and Branson both making sure that their sons were ready for bed. 

Cullen locked the door to their small cottage and turned to see Isolda looking at him suggestively as she she unbuttoned her dresses as she sauntered over to their bedroom. Grinning, Cullen walked into the bedroom behind her, removing his shirt, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and bit at her neck making her squirm as he slid his hands over her body. Her hand reached down and fumbled with his trousers before managing to slip them down to his knees. Cullen slid all of his fingers into Isolda’s womanhood making her squeal as she came.  
“Please...Husband...stuff me full...I cannot wait any longer.”  
Cullen grabbed Isolda’s hips and twisted her around so she was facing the bed before he lined up his throbbing cock and jammed it so far into her that his tip was kissing her womb again and again.  
Isolda groaned happily from being filled with so much her man, it felt like he was trying to enter her baby chamber with every upward thrust.  
They were at this for a full hour before Isolda’s roar rocked the walls of the room as she grabbed the headboard and held on as her orgasm rocked her small frame. Cullen groaned and held Isolda by her hips tight enough to draw her blood as he slammed up as far as he could as the spasms milked his seed into his wife’s womb.  
“Yes,” Isolda whimpered as she relished the hot warmth spreading within her, “Make me swell with your cubs.”  
Cullen reached up and grabbed her breasts giving them a soft long massage as he whispered in her ear, “Our cubs,” over and over again.  
Isolda turned her head and kissed him, “I love you,” she whispered in Old Tongue.  
Cullen kissed her back, “I love you too,” he whispered back as they passed out from exhaustion in each other’s arms.

Neither of them had any nightmares or pains that night.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some wounds are possibly healed.

Chapter Five(RE-EDIT)

The following day was rather uneventful, Kalin had gone hunting early and caught a small deer so Isolda made a breakfast of venison stew with eggs. Kalin said she and Kirkland would head into town for some work leads, whatever that meant.  
Bronn, being a Healer, had applied to help at a local clinic, since Divine Victoria had enacted policies that gave non criminal mages the same rights as non mages. Mages and Apostates alike had started to move into the larger cities across Thedas, usually as Healers or Apothecaries.  
Of course, this lead many Chantries to disavow the Divine’s words as the heresy of a madwoman.  
Oh, Leliana did not take kindly to that, Isolda chuckled to herself as she finished packing away her clothes in the dresser she had bought in Wycome.  
“What’re you laughing at?” Cullen asked he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, he nuzzled at her neck.  
“The world has changed so much in such a short span of time,” she whispered.  
“Hasn’t it.”  
“One can only hope the Gods are merciful.”  
“Well, hopefully he will be.”  
Isolda silently nodded, the subject of their differing religious beliefs had been a hurdle for their relationship at first.  
Isolda had hated being called the herald of a dead Lowland God, the Free-folk Gods were many and while warriors often claimed their actions were dedicated to a specific god, usually Haakon Wintersbreath, the gods took few true champions. But most of the Free-folk did not believe in any of the Lowland gods, claiming that they were long dead. But now they knew to respect each other, even if they did not agree.  
“Hey, do you wanna do something later?”  
“Like what?”  
“I heard about a nice grove nearby, we could go fishing.”  
“That sounds nice.”  
Cullen tightened his grip around Isolda as they just sat together on their bed for a while. He reached up and snaked his hand on to her breast and started kissing her neck.  
“We really shouldn’t right now.”  
Cullen chuckled, “You couldn’t keep your hands off of me last night.”  
Isolda squirmed as Cullen’s hand snaked under her dresses and toyed with her womanhood. She sighed and began to grind her hips driving the strong fingers deeper into her folds. Her hand reached back and stroked Cullen to full hardness through his trousers and smalls.  
Barker started whining for attention brought them out.  
“Oh alright boy,” Cullen chuckled as he got up to let the dog outside.  
Cullen opened the door and saw Mia standing outside with her hand raised about to knock on the door, Zachery was standing behind her at the road. Cullen could see her cheeks were flushed red and her eyes were bloodshot.  
“Hello, Mia,” Cullen said curtly.  
“Hello, Cullen,” Mia looked at the ground, “May I come inside?”  
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”  
Mia nodded, “I was hoping to talk with Isolda, is she here?”  
“I don’t think she wants to see you right now.”  
Mia nodded again, “Well, I was hoping that you’d both be able to come over tonight or tomorrow evening for dinner at my place.”  
Cullen glanced over to the bedroom door and then to Zachery, who was introducing himself to Kalin and Kirkland, “I’ll ask Isolda if she wants to, but I can’t guarantee she will.”  
Mia nodded and said after a silence, “I really fucked up, didn’t I?”  
Cullen couldn’t really say anything, “Mia, I know Isolda does take time to get used too, and I know that turning up with her without telling you first probably wasn’t the best move, but please give her a chance.”  
“I will, Cullen,” Mia said turning to leave.

“Good afternoon, Cullen,” he heard from behind him as he checked on his horses, he turned and saw Alexi walking up.  
“Afternoon, Alexi,” he greeted stiffer than he had intended, “What brings you all the way out here?”  
“I...I wanted to apologize for being so forward at the festival, I guess I’d had a little too much to drink and seeing you again after so long just made me feel rather nostalgic,” She said moving a bit closer, “I hope I didn’t offend you. I know Mia was hoping that we could...,but since you’re married....”  
“Well, I do appreciate the apology,” Cullen said before he continued brushing his horse.  
“I was hoping I could make it up to you,” Alexi said, “Perhaps you and your wife could come over for dinner...perhaps tonight even.”  
“I’ll talk with Isolda about it, but I don’t think we can tonight.”  
“Why not?”  
“Isolda’s in the forest right now and she said she might be gone for a while.”  
“Oh, ok another time then? Do you know how long you’ll be here?”  
“No, we’re not on a serious time table cause I didn’t want to cut my visit short if I didn’t have to.”  
“Ok, just let me know. I really am sorry Cullen, I didn’t mean to be disrespectful.”  
“Your apology is accepted, Alexi, I’ll talk with Isolda and let her know you wanted to speak with her.”

It was evident to Isolda that Mia had gone to great effort to make a nice dinner for them. She silently took the wine they brought and then they stood around self consciously not knowing what to say.  
“I’m really sorry for what I said, Isolda,” Mia said after a while, “I hope you can forgive me.”  
Isolda stole a quick glance at Cullen and saw him soften slightly. She knew what it meant for him to have his family back, she could forgive, for him.  
“My father taught me to move past trouble after solving it, apology accepted, Mia,” she felt Cullen relax a little beside her.  
Mia asked about Cullen’s plans over dinner with Mia showing interest, Zachery adding tips to Cullen about training a city watch from his younger days in Jader from time to time as well.  
Cullen left the dinner feeling better, he wondered if Mia really wanted to turn things around and would stop forcing her way.  
Isolda told him she felt the same sentiments, but really she didn’t, not completely. It was not the first time she had been called a Bog Devil, nor would it be the last. In fact, people would sometimes whisper it when they thought she would not hear them, or sometimes they would say it to her face. One soldier in particular had gone so far as to attack her, Cullen made the soldier apologize and made him clean the stables for a month. Isolda started to take notice of Cullen a bit more after that.  
“So,” Cullen asked as they walked by some cleared fields, “Do you think she really wants to start over?”  
Isolda bit her lip, trying to decide on her answer. Cullen sounded genuinely hopeful, she really could not blame him, he had not seen his family in just shy of two decades, gods knew she felt the same.  
“I hope so,” was her quiet answer.  
The couple continued walking in silence, unaware of the hulking creature hiding in the dense bushes and grasses a few yards away watching them.

Isolda moaned as she ground her hips into Cullen’s as she rode him as he thrusted up into her. Isolda leaned down and kissed neck and jawline as she whispered sweet nothings in Old Tongue to him as his thrusts became more and more erratic before he flipped them over and pinned Isolda on the bed. Isolda’s hand clawed at Cullen’s back her nails drawing lines of blood as she lost herself in her orgasm. Cullen continued thrusting as the tightness around him grew before he too came driving his seed deep into his wife’s womb. Isolda smiled as she basked in the warmth filling her, she weakly wrapped her arms and legs around Cullen as he continued to gently push his seed into her.  
“How long have we done this?” Isolda wondered aloud.  
“Nearly every night for the past month at least.” “I should be ready then,” Isolda said as she weakly stood on shaking legs to walk over to the window over their dresser, she giggled as she felt warm seed drip out of her and down her inner thighs.  
“Ready for what?” Cullen asked.  
Isolda said nothing as she opened the window letting in the cold autumn air to cool off before she pulled out a couple of dresses and folded them neatly on a chair. She slipped back into back into bed and molded herself on to Cullen giving him a kiss.  
“I love you, Husband.”  
“I love you, Wife.”


	6. An Unexpected Guest

Chapter Six(RE-EDIT)

Isolda walked around the hazy forest as she acclimated herself to the Fade as she’d done countless times since the age of twelve. Isolda liked the Fade, it was familiar, her mother taught her almost everything she knew about magic in the Fade being watched by Spirits of Curiosity or learning from Spirits of Wisdom. She was taught her first defense lesson from a Spirit of Valor. Yes, Isolda liked the Fade, but she was not a child, she knew the dangers and she had her share of mess ups.  
Isolda followed the noise down a thin path through a dense forest and found two Valor Spirits clade in full plate armors clashing against each other in a clearing while an Innocence Spirit lounged under a nearby tree. Isolda sat down next to her and asked Innocence why the Valors were fighting.  
“Boys will be boys,” Innocence sighed as the knights dueled. Isolda watched for an hour before getting up to continue on her way.  
“Watch the trees, Dreamer,” Innocence said as Isolda left.  
Isolda’s walks through the Fade had always been lonely, but the small balls of light that danced around her did alleviate that pain slightly. Isolda stopped in her tracks, she was in a clearing, but this one felt...wrong. Dead. She quickly climbed a fat tree and quieted her breath.  
She felt the thumping of her heart quicken as a large demon covered in smoking black fur lumber out of the forest into the clearing. It was head, shoulders, and elbows over her, with almost bear like features, head sized hands with long slender silver claws like short swords that could disembody a man in a single swipe.  
Isolda’s breath caught in her chest as the demon turned its large bearlike head and glared at her hiding spot with its yellow glowing eyes, baring its gaping maw filled with blood soaked dagger fang teeth, before it turned and stomped off.  
Isolda’s heart thumped in her ears as she clammed down before she moved from behind the tree, the demon was gone. Isolda quickly made her was in a safe spot before she crossed back into her body.  
She opened her eyes looked around her room, Cullen was still beside her his eyes just barely open.  
“You were tensing, bad dream?”  
“I don’t want to talk about it.”  
Cullen pulled her close and went back to sleep.  
Isolda got up after an hour of insomnia and pulled on her coat and boots to stand outside, she felt something tug on the end of her coat and found Barker had gotten up.  
“I’ll be back in a moment, boy,” Isolda whispered, dog grumbled strongly like he knew about her dream, “Ok, you can come with me.”  
The dog nodded and followed her outside into the cold.

“So, I heard Mia apologized, that’s a first,” Rosalie said. Isolda and she were at her house having tea. “I’m not sure if she’s ever done that before.”  
Isolda nodded, “She did,” she stopped for second, “Has she not apologized before?”  
Rosalie shrugged, “Well, yeah but only if it was extremely important,” Rosalie poured more tea into her cup, “But she didn’t apologize to Branson. No, Mia wasn’t responsible for Simone’s death, that was the illness that passed through Amaranthine that killed a number of people there. But Mia wasn’t polite about her passing,” Rosalie leaned closer and whispered as though someone else were listening, “She tried to pick out a new wife for him not even a day after the funeral.”  
“Then, why did she apologize to me?” Isolda asked sipping on her tea, “Simone was my adopted sister. If she didn’t mind Branson being gone from her life, then why not Cullen?”  
“I don’t know, Isolda,” Rosalie sighed as she drank more tea, “I heard that Alexi apologized to Cullen.”  
Isolda nodded.  
“I’ve known Alexi all my life...she’s nice enough...but she was a bit spoiled, her father was a merchant, so they had a lot of money, she was married for about a year, but her husband had died during the Blight.”  
The two sat and drank tea for a while in silence.  
“What’s your brother like?”  
“You mean Axel?”  
Rosalie sat up and nodded.  
Isolda thought for a moment, “Well, my brother’s real name is Wulffengar, Axel was his milk name. He is very shy, usually preferring to keep to himself. But he’s very protective.”  
“What’re milk names?”  
“Many in the Free folk hold to the tradition of not naming their children until their second birthday, so most mothers give their babies temporary names until they’re strong enough to survive without their mother’s milk. My milk name was Issa, meaning ‘small’, on my second birthday my mother named me, Isolda, meaning ‘Treasured’ after my father’s mother, Isolda Svendotten, she died before my naming day.”  
Rosalie listened as Isolda talk about her brother for another half hour before Isolda returned home.

“Are you sure you’ll be alright, Dear?” Cullen asked as he entered the house after he waved goodbye to Kalin and Kirkland as they left for Amaranthine, “I don’t feel great about you being left alone.”  
“I’ll be fine, Husband,” Isolda reassured him, “Besides, Bronn said he’d meet me for lunch.”  
“I’m leaving Barker here,” Isolda looked cross as she turned away from him, Cullen snaked his hands on to his wife’s hips, “Please indulge me, Dear, I’ll feel better knowing he’s here. It’s my first day at work, I’ll be back by mid afternoon, okay?”  
Isolda’s grin cut through her stony demeanor, “Okay, okay.”  
Cullen kissed Isolda as he grabbed his sword and walked out the door.  
Isolda looked down at Barker, “He really is something, isn’t he, boy?”  
Barker tilted his head to the side and barked in response.

Isolda considered the morning’s chores an accomplishment...well the cottage was cleaner and the laundry was scrubbed and hung with a minimal of swearing in Old Tongue. Isolda glanced down at her arm and felt a tear well in her eyes.  
“Come on, you’re a grown woman with two children,” Isolda scolded herself in Old Tongue. She gathered her coat and whistled for Barker to follow as she stepped out the door locking it behind her.

“We should find you a wife to steal,” Isolda commented to Bronn in Old Tongue over her potatoes and venison stew, they were at the tavern nearest to the clinic.  
Bronn spat out his ale as his mother laughed, “Why should that concern you?”  
She shrugged as the wench who brought them their food came over to refill their tankards. Isolda noted that the wench was a cute young girl with large thighs.  
“It’s the mother’s job to ensure the new daughter can bare healthy grandchildren,” she said as she noted the wench beamed a smile toward Bronn as she left.  
“Besides it’s about time you started looking.”  
“I’m eighteen, Mom.”  
“I was your age when I had you.”  
Bronn put his head in his hands and sighed.

Isolda was greeted by Alexi as she left the Apothecary after Bronn left to go back to work.  
“Hello, Isolda,” the younger woman said brightly, “Do you remember me?”  
Isolda nodded, “Of course, Alexi,” Isolda outstretched her hand, “It’s good to see you again.”  
“I was hoping we could have some tea together, maybe swap life stories.”  
In spite of her hesitances, Isolda agreed. They went to a tea shop and took a table in the small back garden. Alexi watched as Isolda as she pointed to Barker and ordered him to lay down.  
“What a well behaved dog, where’d you get him?”  
Isolda explained Barker, Alexi watching her.  
“I can only begin to imagine the exiting stories you have from your travels,” Alexi said.  
They spent the next hour talking before stood to leave, “I should get going, it was Cullen’s first day at work and I want to make him something nice.”  
She gathered her things and whistled for Barker to follow, “It was nice talking with you, Alexi, we’ll have to do this again sometime.”

Isolda had seen the man as she left the tea shop and was aware of him as she crossed South Reach to get to the road that would lead her home. She became concerned when four other men joined him. Somethings came naturally to her Free folk mind, she saw four more men lurking behind trees up ahead and she got a sense of what Orlesians called deja vu as she noticed the area looked like where she had seen the Demon last night.  
She came to a stop, she did not recognize the men, and if they were bandits they exceptionally dressed and did not have any weapons. So these men were perhaps local villagers trying to scare an outsider then.  
“What’s a sow doing so far from her cave?” A young man with a very gaunt face, bloodshot sunken eyes, and thin wiry hair asked her.  
Isolda merely stroked behind Barker’s ears as she looked at the men from the corner of her eyes. They could barely be called men, they were barely older then Kalin. Some of them looked deathly frightened of her.  
“I asked a question, bitch,” the leader repeated as he stepped closer to her.  
“I heard you, young man,” Isolda said as she payed more attention to Barker, now stroking his chin, “I just didn’t feel like answering a thug.”  
The men around her tensed and murmured amongst themselves before the leader glared at them.  
“If you’re picking a fight with a woman smaller than you, then you clearly have the worst possible handicap for a man,” Isolda said as she absentmindedly stretched her arm across her chest after setting her package down for Barker to guard watching as several of the men flinch as her outstretched hand pointed at them.  
“We don’t want your kind here, bitch!” The leader was practically frothing now.  
“Are you sure that want to do this, young man?” Isolda asked as innocently as a newborn lamb but with as much underlying venom as a Black Lizard Lion, the men around tensed at her words waiting to see who would strike first.  
The young man raised his hand and brought it down hard on Isolda’s cheek, leaving a hard red mark on her pale flesh. A sickening crack pierced the silence, a boy behind the leader screamed bloody murder as he held on to an arrow the size of a small branch embedded through his knee. Three other men moved to help the boy only for more arrows to fly out of the forest striking their feet stopping them.  
A blood curdling bear roar blasted through the trees before a hulking beast burst through the trees, knocking the leader off of his feet, flinging him through the air and into some of his men.  
Isolda quickly grabbed her things, whistled for Barker to follow as she hurried into the side ditch.  
The beast, actually was a soldier, grabbed another man and flung him crashing into a tree stump with the most sickening crack. Two men jumped on to his shoulders and tried to stab it with their knives, but the beast jumped up and leaned back landing its full weight on top of the men crashing them in the dirt.  
Some of the men helped their injured friends while the rest were running back to South Reach. The soldier stood and turned toward Isolda, he lowered the boy in its clenched fist back to the dirt road. The boy ran off after his friends, crying the word monster over and over again. The man stood there almost smug watching the boys run off like headless chickens.  
Isolda slowly stood keeping her eyes on the soldier, he was head shoulders and elbows over her and must have weighted more then three men. He was wearing segmented armor of silver metal over chainmail and a heavy gambeson dyed navy blue, with a bear fur pelt as a cowl over his shoulders and the bear’s head as a hood. His breastplate had a rearing griffin on it, like Rainer’s.  
“You’re a Warden?” Isolda asked as she checked on her packages.  
The soldier nodded as he gathered his arrows and returned them to the quiver on his back under the massive war bow.  
“Thank you for helping me,” she said, the soldier nodded.  
“Who are you?”  
The soldier raised his metal incased fists to his bear head and pulled it back revealing a young man no older then Kalin, with a long face, his long nose was broken in three places and slanted to the left, his eyes were the color of muddy river reeds and were ringed by a needle thin line of tarnished gold. His wide cut jaw was clean shaven with a chiseled chin, his mouth was set in a neutral expression.  
He was a handsome man by many accounts despite his battle scars, but the feature that drew Isolda’s attention the most was his long rope-like bright copper hair that was pulled into the hood.  
This young man who had just saved her life was Free folk, more importantly he was Twisted Hair.  
More importantly...he was...he was....  
“Axel?” Isolda asked.

End


	7. A Message of Family

Chapter Seven (re-edit)

Cullen was tired, he’d been on his feet all day training farm boys how to hold a damn sword correctly and that group of boys who were claiming they were just attacked by a demon of all things. Cullen just wanted a nice meal and sleep tonight.  
But, when Cullen got home he saw the largest man he’d ever seen in his life. The man could only be compared to the Iron Bull in height and weight. The man sat on a stool next to the fireplace with Barker at his side as he polished the blade of a two handed longsword. He must’ve been from Isolda’s tribe, because of his long, bright copper hair was braided interlocking into a single braid.  
Isolda rounded a corner and greeted Cullen, hugging and kissing him. Bronn shook his stepfather’s hand before going back to the kitchen.  
“Husband,” Isolda said leading him by the hand to the man by the fire, “This is my little brother, Wulffengar Axel Toryggson the Mountain Bear.”  
Axel regarded Cullen for a moment before sheathing his sword and standing to his full height, his head nearly touched the rafters.  
Cullen swallowed before he extended his hand and said in his best Old Tongue, “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you....”  
Cullen’s words were interrupted as Axel reached down and picked up Cullen in a massive hug that lifted him into the air. Axel had a wide grin on his face.  
“Careful, Husband,” Isolda said, “Axel’s a hugger.”  
“No kinding?” Cullen asked as Axel put him down and sat on the stool, he was just over head height with Isolda.  
“My Sister was telling me about your involvement in the Inquisition, very impressive, Brother,” he said in deeply accented Common.  
“Uh, thanks, uh...brother.”  
Axel smiled again, revealing three of his teeth had gold crowns. 

Cullen opened his eyes to the early morning light, something heavy was laying on his legs. At first he thought it was Barker but then he noticed the hot wetness around his cock. He sat up and pulled the blanket to the side. Isolda was laying naked on her side, greedily sucking on his cock while her fingers were massaging his balls.  
“Good morning,”she whispered as if nothing was wrong.  
“What’re you doing?”  
Isolda pulled the cock from her mouth and grinned, “I was woken up when your little knight delved its way into my chamber, so now I am horny.”  
Cullen grinned as he flipped the small woman on to her back, he raked his teeth across her petals. Isolda grabbed his head and bucked her hips up into his mouth. Cullen smiled as his tongue stretched out spreading her lips and delved into her core. Isolda’s panting moans became heated as her fingers were tangled in Cullen’s blonde hair. After a few minutes, Cullen reached up and grabbed her hips pinning her, Isolda wrapped her legs around Cullen’s shoulders as she neared her edge. Cullen stopped and pulled out of her, Isolda started to growl but she smiled as Cullen lined up his cock and pulled her hips up to meet his. Isolda clenched down on the familiar weight kissing her womb, she reached up and pulled herself up to sit on her husband’s thighs, pushing his cock further into her cervix.  
“I love you,” Cullen whispered into his wife’s ear as he thrusted into her.  
Isolda could only moan and whimper as Cullen’s strong hands gripped on to her ass hard enough to leave bruises. Isolda roared as she tilted over the edge, she clamped down on Cullen as her body spasmed. Cullen continued to thrust into her before he too jumped over his edge and flooded Isolda’s womb with his seed. Isolda’s grip on Cullen subsided as she came down from her high, she kissed Cullen’s lips and whispered, “I love you too.”  
Cullen smiled as he laid down with his wife just happy that she was safe and sound.

Cullen opened his eyes when he heard someone heaving. He saw Isolda sticking her head out the window as she wretched out her dinner from last night. Cullen got up to help her by holding her hair back and rubbing her back. “Are you ok, Dear?” “I don’t know,” she whimpered wiping her mouth, “Maybe we should throw out the trout?” 

“Arl Bryland, thank you for seeing me,” Cullen said as he stepped into the Arl’s home, the two men shook hands as they sat down at a table.  
“Commander, I understand there was an incident the other day you wished to discuss?” the Arl asked as a servant poured glasses of wine for the men.  
“Yes, my lord,” Cullen said, “Yesterday, nine men attacked my wife outside the city walls when she was walking home, one of the men threatened her and told her that Free folk weren’t welcome in South Reach.”  
The Arl looked at Cullen for a moment, “Well, this is surprising to me, I didn’t think there’d be too much unrest about her arrival, is she alright?”  
“Yes, luckily, Isolda’s brother, Axel, who is a Warden, had intervened and scared the men away. Has this happened before?”  
“Well, there is a group, but they don’t usually attack people. Did Isolda say anything about them?”  
“Yes, Isolda said they looked like farmers and the leader might be a former Templar.” Cullen had been livid when Isolda told him.  
The Arl nodded and rubbed his chin, “Well, if the leader really is a former Templar, then there isn’t much I can do. I’ll see if Captain Davison knows anything.”  
“I know.”  
“We’ll need to be careful, Commander.”  
“I know. I’ll leave it to you,” Cullen stood, “But if it happens again, I’m going to deal with this myself.”  
The Arl nodded as Cullen left, he stood in the town square for a moment before heading home. He saw Alexi talking with a small group of young women, many seemed younger than her, but Cullen saw no young men about. He turned a corner and continued on the road to home when he heard her calling to him.  
“Cullen, what brings you here today?” Alexi asked, “I saw Isolda yesterday, she mentioned that you’re training the city guard. Do you like it?”  
“Yes, I was just talking with the Arl and now I’m headed home,” Cullen said as he continued on his way, Alexi walked alongside telling him all about her day.  
She stopped when they reached the city wall, “You seem really tense, Cullen. How about we grab a drink a the tavern before you head home.”  
She looked hopeful, but her expression fell when Cullen declined.  
“No thanks, Alexi,” he said with a wave of his hand, “I need to go home and I’d be poor company right now.”  
He turned and headed home. Alexi smirked as she turned back to her friends.  
“May, how is your brother doing?” Alexi asked a friend.

Cullen was pensive on his way home, trying to figure out what the best plan was. When Isolda had told him what the young man had said, he immediately offered to move them up to Amaranthine.  
“Husband,” she said in her calming voice, “I won’t allow belligerents to dictate where I can and can’t live.”  
Cullen nodded.  
“You wanted to be apart of your family’s lives again, Axel said he’ll be here for the next week reporting on any Darkspawn activity in the area.”  
She’d been quiet most of the day, which worried Cullen.  
He finally asked her what was wrong, “I think we should pick up our training again. I was lucky that Axel was there, but what happens next time?”  
“I know, Love,” Cullen said to Isolda before he left to speak with the Arl. He was torn because he wanted to keep her safe, but he also wanted to be with his family. He didn’t want her to sacrifice her safety for his happiness, he didn’t want her sacrifice anything else. He got home and found the house was empty save for Isolda, who was in the kitchen brewing her draught. He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her middle and kissed her neck.  
“Feeling any better?”  
“I’m fine, Husband,” she said, “I’ve had worse,” she stirred her draught for awhile, “I thought about what I said earlier. Can we keep training?”  
“Yes, of course,” Cullen said, “We’ll start tomorrow, I spoke with the Arl, he wanted to handle it.”  
Isolda nodded.  
“I heard you had tea with Alexi.”  
Isolda nodded again, “Yes, she seemed nice, but...,” she turned around in Cullen’s arms, her eyes weary, “I think she had something to do with those boys.”  
“You think she sent them after you?”  
“I don’t know...it might just be me being paranoid, but I can’t shake off this hunch.”  
She set the spoon down and let the draught cook and sat at the table.  
“I’m not sure what to do, I can’t let them intimidate me, but I can’t cast my magic to protect myself, or if I hurt any of them...we’ve only been here a few days, and I don’t know who to trust yet. I wish they’d been mercenaries or bandits, at least then I could’ve defended myself.”  
Cullen nodded as he sat at the table and took her hand in his, “I’m not saying you’re wrong, honey. We’ll train tomorrow, but I’m hoping this was a one off thing, just some farm boys trying to prove their tough guys.”  
He tugged her to him, “C’mere,” he said as he pulled Isolda to straddle his hips, “I swore to the Maker and your Gods to love you till death do us apart, I intend to keep my word.”  
Isolda grinned and kissed Cullen’s lips, “Thank you, My Heart.”


	8. Chapter Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mia bites her tongue, again.

Hidden Things (Re-edit)

“I heard there was a problem the other day,” Mia said as she followed Cullen to his stable to manage his horses, “Something involving Isolda.”  
“What did you hear?” Cullen asked wearily.  
Mia shrugged, “Just that it involved your wife and a Warden and a dozen injured people.”  
Cullen set the bucket of soapy water down on a stool, dipped a rag and went to work on his horse, “There’s more to it than that.”  
“More than what?” Mia asked quizzically, “Are you in danger? Could she snap and murder you?”  
“Maker’s Breath, Mia, Isolda’s not some wild animal in a cage,” Cullen nearly shouted, “She was harassed by a group of local boys, her brother, Axel, had stepped in just before any real fighting happened.”  
“Harassed by locals?” Mia asked, “That doesn’t seem right.”  
“We’re hoping it was a one time scare, the Arl has been informed and two of the boys were taken into custody.”  
“I’m sorry Cullen, is she alright?”  
“She’ll be fine,” Cullen stopped washing his horse and looked at Mia, “Please cut her some slack before you ask her anything, she’s fiercely stubborn about certain things, like her wellbeing.”  
“Yes, you’re right.” Mia said, “Is she home right now? Perhaps I should speak with her.”  
Cullen shook his head as he started on Isolda’s horse, “No, she’s sleeping right now, we were training this morning before you came over. I should finish up here and get lunch ready. You’re welcome to stay.”  
“No thanks, Cullen,” Mia said as she left the barn, “Zachery and I are going horseback riding to a nice picnic spot and I still have to pack our food.”  
“Alright, Mia,” Cullen said as he waved goodbye.  
As Mia walked around Cullen’s house, she heard a widow open, “Oh, Mia, good morning.”  
Mia turned and greeted a still sleepy Isolda, her hair was messy and she was dressed in a silk shift that was very nearly see thru, exposing a beauty mark atop her breast above her heart.  
“What brings you out here?”  
“Just visiting with my brother,” Mia said averting her eyes so she wouldn’t be staring.  
Isolda yawned and nodded, “Well, I’ll let you get on with your day, stay safe on your way back.”  
Mia said her goodbyes and left.

“Did you know that Uncle Arnrich and Aunt Hela had two more children?” Axel asked Isolda as she, Cullen and Axel had a lunch of freshly caught trout.  
“They did?” Isolda asked past her food.  
Axel nodded, “A boy and a girl, very cute.”  
“What’re their names?” Cullen asked.  
“Ain and Feé.”  
“Cute names.”  
“How are Mom and Dad doing?”  
“They’re doing good, Mom wants to see you and your new husband.”  
Isolda stared at Axel, “Mom wants to see me, after what I said?”  
Axel nodded, “You’re still her daughter.”  
“I know...I just....”  
“What happened, Dear?” Cullen asked holding Isolda’s hand.  
“I...uh...said some things that...I regret saying to her and I was too proud to apologize at the time.” Cullen stared at Isolda as she got up and went to the kitchen. Axel stood and packed up to get back to work.  
Cullen got up and went after Isolda. She was washing the dishes in the washbasin.  
“Do you wanna talk about it?”  
Isolda didn’t respond. Cullen stepped up and grabbed her hips, turning her around.  
“You can tell me anything, Dear.”  
Isolda shook her head, “Not this.”  
Cullen kissed her forehead and went to get ready for work. He knew that Isolda would tell him when she was ready.

The next couple of days went by without much incident, till one day Cullen looked up when he heard someone knock on the door, he sighed thanking the Maker that Isolda was with Rosalie.  
Cullen opened the door and found Mia outside, he invited her in.  
“I heard you’re heading up north to live with your wife’s family,” she sighed, “Why am I not surprised.”  
“What? No,” Cullen said, “I mean, yes we’re thinking about going up for a visit, but nothing concrete yet.”  
“Ok,” Mia sighed in relief.  
They talked for a little bit before Mia asked, “Cullen, why don’t you live closer to town?”  
“Isolda likes it out here,” he responded shrugging, “She said it reminded her of her birthplace.”  
“Yeah, about her....”  
“Mia, you should’ve realized you weren’t going to get everything you wanted when I left for the Templars,” Cullen said pinching his nose, “I thought you’d be happy that I was back and largely okay, but you’ve been unhappy with my decisions.”  
“It’s just that Ferelden needs farmers,” Mia argued, “The local guards are fine. Was this your wife’s idea?”  
“You know I was made to defend people, training others to do that fills my purpose and also I don’t know the first thing about farming. Besides, I left the Templars before Isolda was a part of my life,” Cullen said, “I was recruited from Kirkwall by Seeker Pentaghast. She oversaw my attempt to quit lyrium...I told Isolda after she became Inquisitor, and she encouraged me to continue. If Isolda hadn’t been there for me, I doubt that I’d still have my mind today, she helped me through the worst of my withdrawals and nursed me back to health each time I had an episode...it was humiliating.”  
“If it was that bad, why didn’t you just take lyrium again?” Mia asked, “Because SHE told you not to?”  
Cullen rubbed his forehead, this was giving him a bad headache, “You have no idea what you’re talking about, Mia,” he said, “You’re making this about Isolda and that’s wrong. Quitting lyrium was my idea. After everything I saw in Kinloch Keep and Kirkwall, I wanted nothing to do with the Order.”  
“So you gave up on them? You had it easy there, everything provided and pay on top of it. All you had to do was guard mages....”  
“Easy?” Cullen breathed, “You think I had it easy? You have no idea what happened to me when I became a Templar, what happens to every Templar over time.”  
“Then enlighten me, Brother,”Mia said condescendingly, “What could be so bad that you left your cushy life to fight a war and marry a witch?”  
Cullen stared at Mia for good moment, why was she so bitter, “I was tortured at Kinloch Keep by blood mages for weeks, does that sound cushy to you? They’d tortured me-I was a Templar for only a year. I was transferred to Kirkwall. I saw the Knight Commander slowly go insane punishing mages and turning them tranquil for the slightest transgressions. She caused the mage rebellion and I watched her turn into a statue because of the red lyrium in her sword. I had to hold the Order together until Cassandra recruited me. In all of that time I saw Templars who had given their lives to the Order slowly lose their minds to lyrium and be cast aside into the streets where they turned to crime to fuel their addictions.”  
Mia stared at Cullen mouth a gape, unable to say anything, “Is that what you would have for me? That’s what would’ve happened if I hadn’t joined the Inquisition, I would’ve been in an alleyway unable to remember my own name.”  
“I’m...sorry, I didn’t know....”  
Cullen raised his hand, “Don’t, Mia, just don’t. Isolda’s helped move past it.”  
“Is anybody doing anything?”  
Seeker Pentaghast and Divine Victoria are trying to reform the Order so lyrium usage is removed.”  
Mia nodded and there was a long silence, “I think we should talk about Isolda,” Cullen crossed his arms and waited, “I still think that marrying her wasn’t the wisest move. She’ll just have trouble here, she already has.”  
“Deal with it. Our place is together. She chose to be here with me and I won’t let her be mistreated.”  
“Cullen, perhaps it’d be better if she lived with her people, where she belongs.”  
“You mean like Branson?” Cullen whispered.  
Cullen dragged his palm down over his eyes in frustration, “Why do you hate her so much? And give me the real reason.”  
“I hate her because of what they did to us, to Honnleath.”  
Cullen had to fight back the mounting urge to throw her out, “For fucksake Mia that was almost nineteen years ago!”  
“She’s still guilty!”  
“Get out,” Cullen said with shaking breath, “If anyone deserves better it’s her, and if the Maker or her gods bless us with children, I know they’ll be just as beautiful as their mother. You act like we’re beneath you, then get out!”  
“Cullen, I’m....”  
“GET OUT!” Cullen shouted as the door flew open as Isolda came in. Isolda dropped her groceries on the table and went to Cullen’s side, she hadn’t seen him this pale since his lyrium addiction had been subsided.  
“Mia, it is best that you go,” she said as she tried to get him to focus on her, Cullen had slumped in his seat, “I’ll get you something,” she whispered in Old Tongue, “Mia, really I need to take care of him.”  
“I’ll leave when I’m ready,” Mia said definitely, “He’s my brother and I’ll take care of him....”  
“You’ve done enough,” Isolda snapped, “I’m his wife, I’ll look after him.”  
Mia planted herself.  
Isolda walked up to her, “Do not mistake me as weak for my missing arm, I will best you,” her eyes bled yellow, “Cullen still loves you and I will not harm my family.” And with another glare, Mia turned and stormed out the door, Isolda turned back to Cullen.  
“I’m sorry,” he said holding his head in his hands.  
Isolda tilted his head up and kissed his lips, “Come with me,” she murmured as she stood him up and lead him to their bedroom, she had him lie down. She kissed him gently, “Rest now, we can calm down in a moment.” She smiled as she shook her hips a bit as she left to him make some tea.

Mia watched through the window as Isolda prepared a kettle, gritting her teeth as she thought about that filthy witch denying her help, she turned and headed to Alexi’s house. They would think of something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the delay on this chapter, but alot happened recently. I’m still thinking about another story but nothing solid enough to write yet.


	9. Old Friends

Chapter Nine(re-edit)

“Bronn, are you alright?” Isolda asked her son over dinner, Cullen had gone to bed stating he didn’t feel well. They sat at the table in the main room, Bronn hadn’t even changed out of his robes yet, he just pulled them off and threw them over a chair, exposing his thin but athletic upper body.  
“I’m just tired from work,” Bronn said as he rolled a chunk of meat in his stew.  
“Did something happen?”  
“No, Mom, I’ll be fine,” there was a long silence, “A farmer brought in his young daughter today, she was about twelve, he said that she didn’t feel well the previous day and hadn’t woken up this morning, I thought that he was just being a father and worrying about a flu or something. But when I examined his daughter I discovered that she was being possessed by a demon.”  
Isolda silently listened to her son.  
“So I followed your instructions and I exorcised the demon from her, but as I did this I realized that she wasn’t possessed by a demon but by a spirit of the little girl’s dead mother.”  
Isolda placed her hand on Bronn’s, “Do you remember when you were submitted?”  
Bronn nodded, remembering that day all to well, how the blood mage wanted to use him as a sacrifice, “But I was possessed by a demon.”  
Isolda shook her head, “No, you were submitted when you were but two years old, the Scalefoot sent hunters to find an old woods witch that lived in the area by the name of Baba Arlynne, she summoned a spirit to tell if any of the children of the tribe could become witches upon their twelfth year, you were the only one the spirits selected, as is tradition in the Submitting, the spirit reached out and drew its fingers across your eyes,” Isolda brought up her hand and dragged it down her face, stopping below her own eyes to show him, “The mark would surface when you achieved your connection.”  
There was a very long silence before Isolda spoke again.  
“You were going to have a younger sibling, did I ever tell you that?” Isolda asked.  
“I was?”  
“I was pregnant when I submitted you, but a few weeks later I miscarried, your father was so furious and guilt stricken that he lead a raid against the nearby city of Gwaren, raiding the outlying villages until the city sent knights to capture or kill the warriors, your honor uncle, Bronn Sethson, was captured along with a few other warriors. They were tied up in front of the city gates, covered in pitch, and burned alive as a warning against future raids. Then the knights came down and raided the Scalefoot tribe, they killed nearly two thirds of the tribe’s warriors before we got away. A knight broke into your father’s house, killed his other wife, Chay and her newborn child, and then he stole you.”  
Bronn stared at his mother before he stood and went to the kitchen to clean his plate. He went to his room and went to bed, thinking about what his mother had just told him for an hour waiting for sleep. His thoughts were interrupted by the annoyingly loud moans of his mother and stepfather having sex in their room.  
Bronn rolled over and tried to ignore the sounds.

The following morning when Bronn carried a bucket of oats out to the horses, he saw Axel attending to his horse, a stallion with a patchwork coat of light orange and white and a mane of white. Axel looked up at Bronn when he approached his horse, a mare with a snow white coat and mane.  
“Hello, Uncle,” Bronn says.  
His Uncle nodded to him as he cared to his horse, “Are you alright, Deirféar?”  
Bronn looks at his uncle for moment, “It’s nothing.”  
“It’s Old Tongue and means Sister’s son,” Axel explained.  
“Did my mom ask you to talk to me that way?” Bronn asked a bit too harshly.  
“We have never really spoken before, if you do not want me to speak in the way of our tribe, then tell me.”  
Bronn rubbed his temple, “No, no, I’m sorry, I’m just tired.”  
“From your mother moaning like a sow in heat?” Axel asked.  
Bronn flustered at the question, “It’s ok, Deirféar, I heard them even out here.”  
Bronn scowled at his uncle before saying, “I was talking about my job helping people.”  
Axel nodded, “I often feel the same.”  
“Why?” Bronn asked as he fed the three other horses, “The way were you swinging that sword the other day with Cullen didn’t seem to hard to me.”  
“I believe that my father isn’t proud of me, he sends me to areas that have no Darkspawn so I’m never in any real danger,” he muttered with a solemn face, “I’m up in the sun and the forests while the real Wardens are in the Deep Roads.”  
“Aren’t you a Warden?” Bronn asked.  
“No, I’m barely a Warden Recruit, my superior officer, Constable Kader, says I’ve yet to truly prove myself, whatever the blasted Dwarf means by that.”  
“Maybe you’re not meant to be a Warden.”  
Axel looked at his nephew and thought.  
“How’s Hailie doing?” Bronn asked after awhile, his younger cousin was sick recently.  
“Much better, that draught you made her has really helped her breathing troubles.”

Bronn cracked his strained fingers as the old farmer he had been working on got up when he was done, the old farmer paid him and left. Bronn got up and stretched his legs before moving on to receive his next patient. The clinic could hold up to a hundred people at a time and usually had twenty Medicine Users, Healers who use medical remedies instead of magics, five Healers like Bronn, and a couple of guards to keep the peace.  
“Here’s your next patient, Bronn,” said Ludwig of Tallo’s Eye, an older Orth man from the Anderfels, he was a tall thin with a thinning grey beard and a scarred face, “Should be simple, a farmer injured his leg.”  
“Aunt Mia, Uncle Zachery?” Bronn asked as he sat down, the blonde woman sat next to her husband, who was holding his knee, “Did something happen to your leg?”  
“I think I sprained something,” Zachery said.  
Bronn bent the knee and saw how Zachery tensed, Bronn summoned healing magic into his hands and then into the knee.  
“Well,” Bronn said as he bent the knee, “I think you just strained a tendon, take a day to rest your leg and you should be fine. If it gets worse, come see me.”  
The day dragged on until the sun had long set, he said goodbye to his boss and headed home. He was walking alone in the forest just enjoying the moment alone, the sounds of the forest were always peaceful to him and he enjoyed the cold air.  
Bronn heard a twig snap off to his side and reflexed, pulling his knife from his belt and waited for something to happen, he was about to continue on his way when something heavy crashed into his back pinning him to the dirt road for a moment. Bronn willed flame into his hand and thrashed out grabbing a slender arm. He swiftly turned around pinning the assailant to the dirt. He brought his flame up to see and found a familiar Elf woman, with a soft heart shaped face with sun kissed skin, long curly dark hair, and eyes the color of amber. She wore a blue wool coat a size too big over an apple red shirt with a hood pulled back and her slender legs were covered in dark trousers tucked into her mismatching boots.  
“Aurum?” Bronn asked.  
“Lethallin?” the Elf asked lowering a dagger in her hand, “What’re you doing here?”  
Bronn lowered his hand, “I work in a clinic now, what’re you doing here?”  
“A Friend asked me to ask someone something,” Aurum answered as she stood up with her old friend.  
Bronn noticed some blood on her arm, “What happened?”  
Aurum looked down at her shoulder, “Oh,” she tried to hide it, “It’s nothing,” she said.  
“You’re coming with me,” Bronn said sternly grabbing her arm and leading her down the road, “That wound could get infected.”

Back at Isolda and Cullen’s home, Bronn opened the door and found his parents and uncle sitting by the fireplace.  
“Mom, can you get me some clean water and soap, please?” Bronn asked as he lead Aurum into his room as she pulled off her coat. He sat her down on his bed as he gathered his wrapping cloth. “Bronn, who’s your friend?” Cullen asked from the kitchen as he and Isolda brought him a bowl of water and a small bar of washing soap.  
“Aurum of Edgehall,” Aurum reached out her hand to shake Isolda’s, “I’ve a message for you.”  
“That can wait till tomorrow,” Bronn said sternly as he sat down beside the Elf and unbuttoned her shirt, pulling it down over her shoulder to look at the wound, exposing her breast in the process, “Did you fight a dog?”  
Aurum’s smile turned to a grimace as Bronn inspected the seeping bite marks, he took some cloth to clean up the blood and any contamination before he would mend her flesh.  
“Do you need help?” Isolda asked, Bronn shook his head.  
“Thanks, Mom,” Bronn said, “But I can heal her.”  
“Dear,” Cullen placed a hand on her shoulder, turning his attention to Bronn, “If you need anything, just say.”  
Bronn nodded as he worked. Isolda and Cullen sat down and watched the fire as Axel polished his swords.  
“Are you hopeful, Sister?”  
“What do you mean?”  
Axel pointed to Bronn’s room, “The Elf that your son knows enough to look at her breast.”  
Isolda slapped Axel’s shoulder, “Wulffengar, tú Cúl Tóna.”  
“You’re one to talk,” he rebuffed as he mimicked the sounds of Isolda’s sexual moans.

Bronn sighed as he cleaned Aurum’s bite marks, ‘My family,’ he thought before saying, “I’m sorry about my family.”  
Aurum smiled at her friend, “It’s alright, I think they’re very nice.”  
“I’ve wondered if I’m truly related to them,” Bronn joked as he dabbed a cloth in the water.  
“Remember back at the Gwaren Chantry?” Aurum asked after awhile, tucking some of her hair behind her ear, “When we first met?”  
“I remember you stole a roll of bread and were about to have a few of your fingers cut off as punishment,” Bronn smirked as he finished cleaning.  
“Why did you defend me that day?”  
Bronn looked up at Aurum and thought for a moment, “Do you want me to say some sappy lie or the truth?”  
Aurum tutted and lifted Bronn face up to her’s, “You know what I mean.”  
Bronn blushed and chuckled, “I don’t really remember why I helped you, but I’m sure it was important.”  
“Smart-ass,” Aurum grinned bringing Bronn close enough to feel her breath, “But you’re my smart-ass.”  
Bronn grinned and kissed Aurum’s forehead, “I’ll let you recover your strength.”  
He stood to leave but Aurum grabbed his sleeve.  
“You’re not gonna take the hint?”  
“What hint?” Bronn asked trying to keep a straight face, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”  
Aurum fumed as Bronn left, “Dumbass.”  
Bronn was thankful his family had gone to bed in the hour it had taken him to heal Aurum, he sat down on the couch and rested his eyes. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve been thinking about overhauling the story from the first chapter to overall improve it, I might also drop ideas for the story. But nothing is decided yet.  
> I haven’t decided a timeframe for this, but it probably won’t be a monthly release, I might rerelease the chapters as I finish them.  
> Thank you all for your support.


	10. Merry Satinalia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you haven’t read the re-edited chapters then I strongly suggest you do, I’ll be using the new elements of my head canon in the story from now on.
> 
> Thank you all for your continued support.

Chapter Ten

Cullen opened his eyes when the bed shifted as Isolda got up and ran around the bed, and opened the window as she wretched. Cullen got up and shook the grogginess from his head and helped Isolda by holding her hair back.  
“What’s this about, Dear?” Cullen asked as he rubbed his wife’s back.  
Isolda wiped her mouth, “I don’t know,” she sat down on the bed and waited for her belly to calm down.  
After she wretched her insides out and cleaned herself up before she sat down at the table with Aurum when she woke up an hour later.  
“So, yeah, basically a friend of yours heard something about a few farm boys causing mischief for you,” the Elf said, “I can found out who sent ‘em.”  
“Thank you, Aurum,” Cullen said as he cooked breakfast, “But, we’re hoping this was just a one-off thing.”  
Aurum looked over at Bronn, “Well, I’ll still do it, ‘cause I owe Bronn here a favor, so...”  
“We’ll think about your offer,” Isolda said.  
After breakfast, Aurum got up, kissed Bronn’s cheek and left the house, leaving Isolda smirking at Bronn as his cheeks reddened.

Cullen held up a shield as a guardsman hit him with a practice mace, trying to knock his grip loose. The training session soon ended and the guardsmen returned to the barracks before heading back on their patrols.  
Cullen and Zachery were sitting at a counter in a tavern.  
“Satinalia is next week, are you gonna celebrate?”  
Cullen nodded as the bartender poured him a tankard of ale, “Isolda, Bronn and I have thought about going north to Amaranthine, but nothing solid right now, her brother was going back today but got word he could stay a day or two if the weather got bad.”  
“Branson and Callum will be back in two day’s time for the celebrations.”  
“Isolda will like that, I think she enjoys Branson and Callum’s company.”  
Zachery drank from his ale, “Are you coming to the party, Rosalie has been baking up a storm and decorating every inch of her house with greenery and flowers. Does Isolda decorate?”  
“She has done a little decorating, but Satinalia isn’t exactly a Free folk custom,” he chuckled, “I remember the first time she came into the great hall in Skyhold on Satinalia, Josephine had had the walls and gardens decorated for the large party. Isolda and Kalin were really confused, well except Bronn. This’ll be our first one as a family. As for the party-I don’t know. We’re not to keen on meeting Mia right now.”  
“I don’t blame you,” Zachery said swigging his ale, “I don’t know what’s gotten into her head, she’s never been like this before, when she’s with me she’s her usual chipper self, but when she’s near Isolda...I don’t know, it’s like her anger controls her.”

Isolda and Cullen helped Axel as he fitted his horse with his supplies for the two and a half day journey back to Amaranthine.  
“So, what should I tell Mom and Dad?” Axel asked Isolda.  
“When we’ll come to visit,” Isolda reassured her brother, “We’ll send word ahead then.”  
Axel nodded, turning to Cullen he placed his spade sized hand over his shoulder and pulled him close, “Just so we’re clear, Brother, if you bring any pain to my dear Sister or her cubs...”  
Cullen nodded as the large warrior took his horse’s reins and lead it down the road and back to Amaranthine and the rest of the Free folk.

Cullen, Isolda and Bronn arrived at Rosalie’s on Satinalia at mid morning with gifts, they were greeted by Rosalie, Kalin and Branson. Kirkland and Callum were playing with toys that their grandparents had given them. Kalin was telling her mother about the living arrangement between Branson and herself.  
“So, basically...we’re living together.”  
Isolda held back tears as best she could.  
Kalin held up her hands in defense when her mother jumped up and hugged her.  
“I knew you’d find another handsome young man to have more babies with,” Isolda almost blathered with tears in her eyes.  
“Mom!” Kalin groaned, trying to push out off her mother’s strong embrace, “We’re not having sex or anything, we’re just living together in the same house. Kirkland and Callum had ganged up on us for days, and then Maimeó had said her piece.”  
“Yes,” Isolda said wiping tears away, she knew fully well just how stubborn her mother got and when she said her piece it usually got done without complaints.  
“What did you two get each other?” Rosalie asked after showing her new earrings.  
Isolda shared a glance with Cullen before showing their freshly made wedding rings. They had gotten married at the Winter Palace so quickly and then overseeing the transition of the Inquisition to the Divine’s personal guard and then Isolda’s depression, the pair just hadn’t the time to have the rings made. They saw South Reach as a fresh start and Cullen had ordered the rings to be made by a local goldsmith.  
Rosalie squealed with delight over the rings, hugging and congratulating them both before she returned to her cooking with Isolda and Kalin’s offered help while the brothers sat down and started talking. Talk shifted to Cullen, Isolda and Bronn’s trip to Amaranthine, after a half hour of talking, Kalin saw Branson stand and leave, she gave her mother and Rosalie meaningful looks before she slipped out the door to join him outside. She stepped up next to him as he leaned on the fence.  
“You okay?” Kalin asked tentatively.  
“I’ll be fine,” Branson replied, “Just give me some time.”  
Kalin watched Branson for a moment before turning to go back inside.  
“No, wait,” Branson said, grabbing her arm, “I just....”  
Kalin turned back to the older man and smiled, “It’s okay,” she said stepping closer and wrapping her arms around his shoulders, “I don’t want to force you into marriage if you’re not ready.”  
Branson wrapped his arms around her, “Okay,” he whispered, kissing her forehead.  
Unknown to the young pair, Isolda and Rosalie saw everything through the window.  
“They’re rather cute together,” Rosalie mused as she cooked food for the party later that night.  
“I’ve only seen her like this with one other man,” Isolda said to herself.

Cullen walked into their bedroom and found Isolda looking in a small mirror frowning at her reflection.  
“What’s wrong?” he asked as he put his arms around her.  
She was wearing a dress that Vivienne had commissioned for her to wear when dealing with nobles. The dress was made of beautiful emerald green sea silks with golden accents and threading. Cullen always thought the dress suited her elegance and beauty.  
“You look beautiful, Dear,” he whispered in her ear.  
“Thank you, Husband,” Isolda whispered back as Cullen’s hands traced her figure down to her hips, “I just....”  
Isolda had been back in town a few times since the attack, but she’d heard the whispers and had seen the quick glances as she passed, someone in town wanted her gone...and Aurum’s investigations had yet to turn up anything substantial, and her troubles with Mia...it was all making her anxious and uncomfortable.  
Maybe it’d be easier if she just didn’t go.  
“We don’t have to go, Dear,” Cullen whispered, “We have plenty of food we should eat up.”  
“No,” Isolda sighed, “It’ll only get worse if I hide. After everything we’ve been through with Corypheus, we were spoken of as if we were heroes of old, but with what happened at the Council...they saw me as a heathen usurper, something that must be feared...it didn’t bother me at first, but now…now I need to fit in, but how can I when I’m the one who lead the war that killed so many of their friends?”  
“If they hate you then what do they think of me, the former Templar who threw away his vows to the Chantry and followed the command of a witch? I was the one who commanded your armies, my orders lead to those deaths,” Cullen whispered, “You shouldn’t bear this alone, Dear.”  
“I know,” Isolda muttered dabbing her eyelids with a cloth and after a moment, “I’ve a strong feeling that women’ll be vying for your attention tonight, trying to lure you away from the Wicked Witch of the Wilds.”  
“It’s to be the Winter Palace again?” Cullen mused as he tightened his hands around his smaller wife, “Well, if you’re not welcome here, then neither am I.”  
“Cullen, you can’t force people to accept me, no more than you can stop the sun from setting,” Isolda’s whispered lovingly, “I’ve seen how people look at me, how they stop talking when I draw near, something big is going to happen, and I don’t know if I can stop it.”  
“Well, maybe they just don’t know you well enough yet, it must be a little intimidating having you live amongst them on a daily basis when you did save the world after all.”  
“Maybe you’re right,” Isolda sighed placing her head on her husband’s chest, “I just need to give it time.”


	11. A Dance of Caution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tensions rise in South Reach under the setting of a Satinalia dance.

Chapter Eleven

Kirkland and Callum ran up to Cullen, Isolda and Bronn when they arrived, Branson came running up after the two boys. He greeted his nephew, brother and sister-in-law, kissing her cheeks.  
The Satinalia Festival was being held in South Reach’s banquet hall, the only remaining building in the Arling from when it was an Alamarri kingdom before the Theirin Conquests. The hall was a large stone and wooden structure that could hold over a couple thousand people at a time, the building was mostly used to stored food stock such as wheat, potatoes, and various meats for the cold winters.  
Greenery with red, yellow, and blue berries were intwined throughout the rafters, giving the hall a pleasant aroma that reminded Cullen of his childhood memories.  
Dozens of tables groaning with food were lined up near the walls with several long tables and chairs set up for people to sit and eat their food at in the back half of the hall behind the roaring hearth in the center.  
Isolda saw Rosalie’s own contribution on a table, dozens of sweet bread rolls piled high on a platter of dark red wood.  
“I’d forgotten how South Reach did Satinalia,” Branson mostly said to himself.  
Isolda looked up at him.  
“Simone found Ferelden customs intriguing, Satinalia was one of her favorite holidays.”  
“I hope this isn’t hard on you,” Isolda said, patting Branson’s shoulder.  
“I’ll be fine,” Branson said, “Callum takes up most of my time when I’m not working, and Kalin’s been a really big help, Callum really likes her.”  
“Yes, about my daughter...there’s something I need to tell you about her,” Isolda said, leading Branson outside into the brisk evening air, she saw a couple of falling stars in the sky.  
“Isolda, your parents already gave me the whole speech when I married Simone.”  
“I need to say this, Branson,” Isolda said turning on her brother-in-law.  
“Isolda, are you okay?”  
“Do you know anything about Kirkland’s father?”  
“Kalin told me that he might still be alive, beyond that...I don’t know anything else.”  
“Well, he’s certainly still alive, but he didn’t choose to follow my father up to Amaranthine. I suspect that Kalin will tell you more when she’s ready to, please be supportive when she does.”  
Branson nodded, “Come on, we’ve picked out a spot for all of us to sit at for dinner.”  
They went back inside and joined the rest of the family, Isolda noticed that Rosalie and Branson hadn’t set aside space for Mia and Zachery.  
“We argued a bit about that before she left to deliver the food,” Branson said.  
“I’m hoping that we’d make amends tonight,” Rosalie said coming over to hug Isolda, “You know, this’ll be the first Satinalia in my life where all of my siblings are here.”  
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Isolda said, remembering that Rosalie wasn’t even twenty yet, turning to Cullen, “Husband, should Mia and Zachery sit with us?”  
Cullen looked over to Branson, “Maybe we should save a couple of seats?”  
“You and Callum can sit at the end with Kalin and Kirkland, it’ll make Rosalie happy,” Isolda offered, trying to be diplomatic.  
Branson hesitated, but after Kalin pulled him to the side for a moment, he agreed, “I guess, in the spirit of Satinalia, I can set aside my feelings about Mia.”  
Isolda smiled at her daughter as she busied herself with getting a couple more chairs for Mia and Zachery. Rosalie hugged Kalin, “What did you tell him?”  
“I made him a promise,” Kalin said, trying to covertly peel herself out of the younger girl’s hug, “He’s doing this to make you happy, I doubt it’ll solve anything long term.”  
“Is Mia and Zachery here yet?” Isolda asked.  
“I don’t see them yet, but Zachery said they’d be bringing Jeannette,” Rosalie said, looking around the hall.  
Rosalie looked over to her brothers, who were talking with Bronn, “I hope we can be a family again, I was barely a year old when Cullen left, I remember Mia refused to speak about him for five years after his first letter came in, saying he’d finished his training and was being sent to the Circle Tower.”  
Isolda placed her hand on the young woman’s shoulder and pulled her into a supportive hug, “Rosalie, Mia is a grown woman, the way she’s acting isn’t your fault and she isn’t your concern, I’m sure there’s a good reason why she’s like this.”  
“I know that,” Rosalie argued, “But, Mia and Zachery basically raised me after our parents...oh, they’re here.”

Isolda watched Rosalie run up to Mia and Zachery to greet them enthusiastically, she noticed they had a young woman with them who looked a lot like Zachery. Same brown hair and blue eyes. Rosalie pointed to where the other Rutherfords were seated. Zachery and the young woman started over to join the rest of the family, but Mia made a point of going over to some of her friends, dragging the young woman with her. Rosalie followed trying to convince her older sister to join her family.  
“Branson,” Isolda asked, “Who’s that woman with Mia?”  
Branson looked up, “Oh, that’s Zachery’s daughter, Jeannette.”  
“Not Mia’s?” Isolda asked.  
Branson shook his head, “Zachery was sort of married before he met Mia, I don’t know who Jeannette’s birth Mum is, but Mia loves her.”  
Zachery approached them sheepishly, he greeted everyone wishing each one a happy Satinalia.  
“I don’t know what’s gotten into her,” Zachery said, looking over at his wife and how she was trying to keep his daughter by her side.  
“It’s ok, Zachery,” Isolda said, placing a hand on his arm, “Maybe she’ll be over later.”  
“Maybe we should go talk with her,” Cullen suggested.  
Isolda noted the hope in his voice, she smiled supportively.  
As they made their way to where Mia and Rosalie were borderline arguing, Isolda silently thanked Josephine and Leliana for helping her to hone her diplomatic skills and silently prayed to the Lady for those skills to be useful here. Mia looked up as they approached.  
“Mia,” Cullen began, “We were hoping that we could sit together as a family today.”  
Mia, Alexi and Jeannette looked at them, the younger of the three women offered a sheepish apology to Isolda as her stepmother looked Isolda up and down.  
“I’ve a feeling I wouldn’t be a welcomed sight,” she spat at Isolda, looking her down with visible disdain.  
“Why would you say that?” Isolda asked, looking up Cullen, “Your family, I’ve only been celebrating Satinalia for a few years now, but as I understand it’s a time for family to come together to feast and celebrate, why wouldn’t you be welcomed?”  
“And just what is there to celebrate?” Mia asked bitterly, “My brother’s heathen marriage to a-,”  
“Your brother’s safe return from war and your first Satinalia as a family in almost twenty years,” Isolda tried to calmly reason, she felt Cullen’s arm wrap over her shoulders.  
“C’mon, Mia,” Cullen said, “What do you say?”  
“Mum, please,” Jeannette spoke up, holding onto her stepmother’s hand, “I haven’t seen Uncle Branson since Aunt Simone passed.”  
Mia’s face visibly softened at her stepdaughter’s words for a brief moment, but she steeled herself just as fast, turning back to Cullen, “No, you’ve made it perfectly clear whose side you’re on the last time we spoke, I can accept that you don’t want to be a farmer, and I appreciate that your son healed Zachery’s old knee problems, but I cannot in good conscious or faith support that you married a heathen witch with base born children, and I couldn’t possibly care less about how famous and important your wife perceives herself to be.”  
Her tone was almost poisonous as she lingered on the word wife, Cullen was taken aback by her words and both women beside Mia looked at her with shock.  
“Fine then,” Cullen said coldly, “We won’t bother you anymore then.”  
He took Isolda’s hand and left, Rosalie following silently.   
“Mum,” Jeannette asked with pain in her voice, “How can you say that after all of the good that’s happened because of her?”  
Jeannette didn’t wait for an answer, she turned away from her stepmother and hurried after her aunts and uncle over to where her father stood watching. Mia felt a tear roll down her cheek as she turned away from her family, “If only you knew, my Dear.”

Zachery stood when they returned, Rosalie put on a hand on her brother-in-law’s shoulder, “She refuses to join us.”  
“I’m sorry, Pére,” Jeannette said, giving her father a hug.  
“No, I’m sorry, Mon bijou,” Zachery whispered, wrapping his daughter in a strong hug, “Your mother is just having a hard time accepting change, she’ll have to learn to accept that her new sister-in-law isn’t who she wanted.”  
“Do you have other family, parents or siblings perhaps?” Isolda asked the portly farmer, “Perhaps they can sit with us.”  
“No, my parents were old when they had me and died shortly after I had Jeannette. My sister though...well she and Mia don’t speak to each other unless it’s necessary.”  
Zachery rubbed his neck before nodding, “I haven’t celebrated Satinalia with my sister for a few years now,” he let go of his daughter and headed over to where his sister was.  
“I’ll come too, Zachery,” Isolda said following him. She’d seen Zachery’s sister occasionally since Rosalie had pointed her out, she saw how she’d looked frightened. A look Isolda had grown used to, perhaps if she extended the invitation with Zachery then his sister might be less intimidated.  
“Bonjour, Sid,” Zachery greeted a stout but well endowed woman perhaps in her late twenties or early thirties, she had the same chocolate brown hair as her older brother but her eyes were closer to silver than blue, “It’s good to see you again, this is Cullen’s wife, Isolda.”  
“Zachariah?” The woman asked in the same Dales accent as her brother.  
“Isolda, this is my little sister, Sidneé, her husband, James and their two children, Alisdair and Rachel.”  
Isolda greeted the small family, who returned the greeting shyly.  
“We’d like to your family to eat with us, Sidneé,” Isolda said, “We’ve plenty of space.”  
Sidneé crossed her arms under her chest, “And Mia?”  
Zachery shook his head, “She’s decided against joining us, we’d love for you too join us, Alisdair and Rachel haven’t seen Jeannette since she left for her training, Branson and Callum are in town and Isolda’s daughter has a son about Alisdair’s age. Please, Sid.”  
Sidneé looked to her husband, who nodded silently, they gathered their things and children and joined the Rutherfords.  
“I don’t remember seeing you at Cullen’s homecoming ceremony,” Isolda said to Sidneé when they sat down and after greetings, “I’m sure Zachery would’ve introduced us.”  
“We were visiting James’ family in West Hills,” Sidneé said.   
They sat quietly eating their dinner and watching as Callum, Kirkland, and Alisdair as they played with Cullen and Isolda’s Mabari Hound, Sidneé’s daughter, who was barely two, sat on her lap eating the vegetables her mother was feeding her.  
Isolda looked around the hall at the families eating dinner, she stiffened but she saw one of the men who attacked her sitting beside one of Mia’s friends, Isolda noticed that his nose was lumpy and tilting at an angle and was still swollen slightly, no doubt from Axel’s fist. Cullen must’ve sensed her tense up because his hand covered hers.  
“Is he one of them?” he asked.  
Isolda nodded, the man was glaring daggers at her and she noticed he was missing some teeth when he spoke to the woman beside him.  
“I’ll have a quick word with the Arl,” Cullen said.  
“Not yet,” Isolda shot back, knowing fully well how his direct methods usually went from their arguments over the war table.  
They’d fought near constantly early on about many different things, it got so bad in fact that Kalin even told them that they should just go into the woods around Haven and fuck to end the mounting tension between them. The soldiers even started taking bets on who’d snap first. Dorian even compared them to Cassandra and Varric.  
Their relationship took a near 180 after Haven, with the pair fighting against their growing feelings toward the other, they’d nearly kissed at the Winter Palace when they’d danced.  
“He might think somethings up if he sees you speaking with the Arl.”  
Cullen nodded, “I guess you’re right, I’ll speak with the Arl later on then.”  
He placed his hands on her’s, “Are you having a good time?”  
He’d noticed some people were discreetly staring and pointing and whispering and Isolda was ignoring them, he didn’t like any of it.  
“I’m fine, Husband,” she smiled, “I can deal with their gossip, it’s all part of the Game.”  
“There’s no game here,” Cullen chuckled.  
“If Leliana, Josephine and Vivienne taught me one thing it’s that the Game is everywhere, it’s just isn’t always obvious.”  
They sat quietly and ate for a while watching the musicians as they set up.  
“I’m sorry about Mia, I was hoping that she’d come around,” Isolda said, grabbing Cullen’s hand, “I shouldn’t have been as harsh with her.”  
“No,” he said, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles, “She needs to remember that I’m a married man with the best wife in all of Thedas to help me when I need it. Really, if you weren’t here with me, I’d be sitting with just Rosalie and maybe Branson wearing whatever she’d pick out for me, with Mia poking my side to get me to dance with Alexi, I’d by twelve all over again.” Isolda giggled.  
The musicians started to play and Cullen and Isolda watched as people got up to dance, they saw Bronn and Jeannette stand up and join along with Branson and Kalin, Isolda grinned at Cullen. Although they’d danced at the first celebration, they were content to sit and watch, until Zachery and Rosalie pulled the couple onto the dancing floor.  
Cullen looked around the Hall as he and Rosalie danced, Mia and Alexi hadn’t moved all night and he couldn’t find the man that Isolda pointed out. It made him anxious not being able to do anything to help, he couldn’t put his finger on it but it seemed that the openness and warm welcome of the first ceremony felt considerably more strained now, he’d noticed the way people would whisper behind Isolda’s back, a shopkeeper even denied Isolda service a couple of days ago. Cullen wasn’t completely sure but he felt some people in South Reach felt like they’d outstayed their welcome the day they arrived in town. Something big was gonna happen, and he and Isolda needed a plan for things went tits up.  
Zachery and Isolda finished their dance and Isolda went back to sit with Sidneé and James, falling easily into conversation with them. She watched as Sidneé swayed along to the music before her husband got up holding out his hand to her to dance.  
“I’ll take the little one for you,” Isolda said as Rachel scrambled onto her lap as her mother eagerly grabbed her husband’s hand as he got up to dance.  
Rachel was adorable and a joy to have, she had her parent’s brown hair and silver eyes, and a button nose with chubby cheeks. She had an inquisitive nature as her hands were exploring Isolda’s hair braids and running over her face causing Isolda to giggle, but the amusement didn’t last.  
“Why is she still here?”  
“Why can’t she just take a hint and leave already?”  
“How can Sidneé and James allow such a creature like that to hold their baby?”  
“Why can’t Cullen understand he’s handsome enough to have a dozen wives by now. Least of all a whole woman?”  
“Is she even smart enough to know which finger to wear that wasted ring?”  
“I heard that Cullen didn’t want to marry her, that she’d forced him.”  
“So that’s why he danced with Alexi, to be with a real woman.”  
Isolda tried to focus on cute little Rachel on her lap instead of the cunt wannabe home wreckers trying to hurt her, but she still felt her anger rising quickly like a tea kettle over a fire. She looked up to her husband and saw that Rosalie was pulling him away from the rest of women lining up to dance with him. Dozens of older couples were watching the women with a mix of disbelief and disgust. Zachery came over and sat down beside her, he looked over to the women flocking around the dance floor and scowled.  
“Those dumb cunts,” he muttered over his tankard, “In South Reach it’s thought as bad form for a married person to dance with a single person if their not family, Cullen caused a bit of a stir by dancing with Alexi, but he didn’t realize it. Those women vying for him are being absolute cunts.”  
“Why isn’t anyone doing anything?” Isolda asked, “Am I supposed to do something? Is Cullen?”  
Isolda’s experiences in the Inquisition was sort of limited to dealing with Lowland nobility, she wasn’t as experienced dealing with more Common folk, she didn’t want to come off as pompous and embarrassing herself or Cullen.  
“Give Rachel to me, go dance with your husband,” Zachery said taking his niece as Isolda got up. She walked out into the dancing couples and found Rosalie practically fending off the women, thanking her young sister-in-law, Isolda held a smug grin on her face as she and her husband went off to dance. Rosalie flashed the women a rather rude finger gesture before walking away to Zachery, who was now cautiously watching Bronn dance with his young daughter.  
“What’s going on, Dear,” Cullen asked, wrapping his arms around her, “Those women are like wild dogs looking for a meal.”  
Isolda explained what Zachery had told her, “Because you danced with Alexi, other women now think that your unhappy with me.”  
Cullen swore at his arrogance, “I danced with Alexi because she’d asked me, I wouldn’t of otherwise. No one said anything then.”  
“Not to your face,” Isolda said scowling at the couple of women bold enough to think they still had a chance to dance.  
“Why didn’t anybody say anything to me?” Cullen asked very annoyed, “Mia knew I was dancing with Alexi...but of course she would’ve no doubt wanted this trouble for us, but why didn’t Rosalie say something?”  
“I don’t think she knew,” she admitted with hesitation, “She was trying to protect me from the same women who were whispering things about me.”  
“What things?” Cullen asked.  
“Petty things to egg me on,” Isolda said after a moment, “Things about my hair, and clothes...my arm.”  
Cullen pulled Isolda into a kiss, “I’m sorry, Dear, we should leave for Amaranthine.”  
Isolda stopped in place and tightened her grip on her husband, “No, you’ll be giving up your family.”  
“I’m willing to do what I must to keep you safe and sound,” Cullen whispered into her ear, “Let’s say our goodbyes and head home and then I’ll make sure you won’t be able to walk properly tomorrow.”  
Isolda blushed and playfully pushed Cullen before they left the dance floor and said they’re goodbyes before leaving for home.

The music started into a slow waltzing song as Bronn and Jeannette got into the slow swinging rhythm for their third dance.  
“I’m glad to see you again,”Bronn whispered into the young Orlesian woman’s ear.  
“I’m glad too,” Jeannette replied, smiling up at the young ginger man, “You know, I like your hair short, it suits you.”  
“Thanks, I like your hair short as well,” Bronn said, bringing his hand up to her cheek, “You look more mature.”  
The young pair gazed into each other’s eyes as they continued their dance, they slowly drew closer and closer till they felt the other’s shallow breaths on their lips and cheeks.  
“Do you remember what you said?” Jeannette asked softly after a while, “Back at the Circle Tower, before the Rebellion?”  
“I do,” Bronn answered calmly.  
“Do you...still mean it?” Jeannette asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.  
Bronn smiled down at her as they glided around amongst the other slow dancers, Jeannette bit her lower lip before she leaned up and pressed her lips to Bronn’s. She knew her father was probably watching but she didn’t really care in her buzzed state of mind, she tightened her grip on his shoulders as she moved her lips, trying to get a response from him. Bronn was startled by Jeannette’s boldness, but soon returned her movements.  
They broke the kiss for air, they gazed into the others eyes, before Jeannette broke the stillness.  
“Do you want to take me home tonight?”  
Bronn nodded, “I do, but I’m not sure if we should.”  
Jeannette giggled delightfully, before pulling him away from the dancing and outside to go to Cullen and Isolda’s home for the night.  
When they get back, Cullen and Isolda found Bronn tending to Jeannette, who was puking her innards out from all of the ale she’d drunken that night. Cullen and Isolda opted to help Bronn that night instead of their usual habits.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve decided to explain how I pronounce many of the names in my story, I probably should’ve done this since the beginning, but better late than never.
> 
> Isolda: E-sold-ah  
> Kalin: Kay-lin  
> Kirkland: Kerk-lind  
> Bronn: Brawn  
> Callum: Cahl-um  
> Simone: See-moan  
> Wulffengar: Wolf-in-gar  
> Torygg: Tore-rig  
> Sidneé: Sid-knee  
> Alisdair: Alice-dar, like darn  
> Jeannette: Jen-et


	12. The South Winds Blow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tensions continue to heat up in the week following Satinalia, and while Aurum reveals startling news of the trouble, Cullen and Isolda recieve a massive shock of their own.

Chapter Twelve

After Jeannette had passed out from her alcohol poisoning, Isolda went over to Zachery and Mia’s home to inform them that their daughter was safe and sound at her home and would stay there till morning because Bronn didn’t feel comfortable moving her so soon. Zachery came by to pick up Jeannette the following morning, the Orlesian man was practically frothing with anger at his daughter, chastising her for thinking that he wouldn’t have noticed not only her departure from the party, but also the fact that she’d left with Bronn.  
“You’re only seventeen,” Zachery yelled at the young girl, “What were you thinking?”  
“And you!” His attention rounding on Bronn, “Stay away from my daughter!”  
With that, the family left.

South Reach was getting colder in the week following Satinalia, a layer of frost coated the yellowing grass and now barren dirt fields where wheat, ryott, potatoes and other crops had been harvested from. Isolda opened her chest beside her bed when dull morning and riffled through the trinkets and other objects before pulling out a small cylindrical crystal about the size of her palm. She closed the chest and sat down on the bed.  
“Dorian?” She asked holding the crystal in her hand as it grew hot.  
“Well, it’s about time you called,” the honeyed voice of the Tevinter Mage came through the Dwarven crystal Dagna had given them, “I’ve only been looking at this thing for the past month wondering when you would. What’s new?”  
Isolda smiled, “Nothing, I just miss talking with you.”  
“Are you okay, Dear?” Dorian asked, hearing something in her voice, “Married life agreeing with you again?”  
“Yes, yes,” Isolda replied, “Everything’s mostly fine, I’ve been feeling nauseous for the past week or so, Cullen’s working for the city guardsmen, his older sister and few other men and women loathe me though.”  
“They didn’t have the gaul to attack you did they?” Dorian asked, Isolda imagined the mage’s mustache twitch in annoyance as he asked.  
“I can deal with them. It’s not too bad, the rest of Cullen’s family love me, and the Arl has offered as much support as he’s legally allowed to. And some of my family’s been reaching out to me.”  
“Well, alright then, let me know if anything happens, you’ve been through enough for several lifetimes, it’s about time you had some piece and quiet.”  
“Thanks Dorian, how’re things with you?”  
“Busy,” the mage sighed, “The Magisterium’s been desperate to find out where hundreds of former Elven slaves could’ve disappeared to in the last few months. I have to go, Dear, give your husband a big kiss for me.”  
“Okay, bye Dorian,” Isolda said watching the crystal grow cold again.  
Isolda thought about her friends and what they might’ve been doing at the time. While she missed all of her friends terribly, she knew that life goes on. She checked on her stock and found she needed a few items that didn’t grow in the nearby forests. Sighing, Isolda pulled on her coat, slipped a focusing crystal into her pocket just incase and called Barker before heading out to go to Rosalie’s.

When Rosalie opened her door, Isolda noticed that she had dark circles under her eyes and her usual smile was not as pronounced, but she did brighten when she saw her.  
“Oh, hello, are you alright?” Rosalie asked.  
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Isolda nodded, “I was going into town and wondered if you want to join me?”  
“Oh,” Rosalie looked back into her small house before looking back at Isolda, “Yeah, sure.”  
“If you’re too tired, then you don’t have too,” Isolda said, curious about the usually bubbly girl slight lack of enthusiasm.  
“No, no, let’s go,” Rosalie said as she grabbed her coat.

Isolda waited outside a store Rosalie worked for, she could tell that people were at least trying to be discreet about pointing and gossiping, but she still heard what they would say. Falling back on her time in the Inquisition she would choose to ignore the majority of the comments, just as she had at the Winter Palace, but there were those few comments that cut deep, deep enough to get her blood up. They’d only dare say such things when Cullen wasn’t around and Isolda’d never told him what they said, because he’d get riled up and do something brash and only make things worse. Isolda also hesitated to confront the gossipers because that could just make things worse.  
She reached down and scratched Barker’s head as he grumbled at the passersby, like he could feel their comments. She wondered how she got here, she wasn’t a blushing teenager. She wasn’t the Inquisitor anymore either and she never would’ve taken advantage of that title even when she held it.  
Things had been said about her before of course...her heritage and beliefs, her questionable start as being a prisoner of the Inquisition and the only suspect in Divine Justinia’s assassination. Her relationship with Cullen, Dorian, the Iron Bull, Varric and really every member of the Inquisition’s Inner Circle. She thought that she’d heard it all really and she’d gotten better at ignoring them, but what had changed?  
Aside from Rosalie and Cullen and her son, she had no real support in South Reach. Her Inner Circle had been her biggest support, always there to offer a shoulder when she needed it. Now they were gone and living their lives and even if the gods themselves demanded her to give up her marriage to Cullen, she would rather give up her beliefs in them instead, she couldn’t help but feel alone. The ones who sided with her, protected and supported her just as she had with them...she didn’t see that happening here and she had strong feelings that Mia and Alexi were likely behind the hostilities, but she also felt it was the rivers of blood that had divided the Clayne and the Free Folk for centuries. So she really couldn’t say.  
Isolda sighed and stood before fixing the gossipers with a hard glare until they moved on. At least she could still intimidate them, not that doing so would stop the rumors.  
“Are you alright?” Rosalie asked Isolda as they walked back to Rosalie’s house, “Are you upset about...well you know?”  
Isolda snapped out of her train of thought, “The gossips getting worse,” she admitted.  
“What do you mean?”  
“If I tell Cullen...I don’t know what’ll happen, he wants to stay close with you all, it was all he spoke of as we traveled down here. All of the hopes he had for dinners and parties and family gatherings...I’m afraid of what Cullen’ll do if he finds out.”  
“What do your instincts tell you?”  
“He’ll insist on moving up to my family, but if we do that then he’ll be giving up everything he wished. Maybe he’ll resent me for it later.”  
She wiped a few tears away, “I keep hoping that people’ll move on with their lives and that I’ll be accepted...but that’s becoming a shitty pipe dream because the rumors keep getting worse.”  
“What’re they saying?” Rosalie asked.  
“At first…well you heard them and then when those trouble makers surrounded me. The name calling had gotten worse at the Satinalia celebration, those girls who tailed behind you as you danced with Cullen despite it being bad form. And now there’s a rumor that I was trying to seduce Sidneé’s husband…and then there’s stories of when I was the Inquisitor, how I didn’t do anything…that I sent soldiers off to their deaths and…and…it’s just so fucking infuriating.”  
Rosalie gripped onto Isolda’s hand, “Look, those people are just trying to get you riled up enough to get you kicked out, you have nothing to prove to them.”  
“I know, I can handle the sniping about flirting, about Cullen and my friends…I’ve heard all of that before. What I won’t stand for is the talk about the decisions I made as Inquisitor and speculations about my role. I know what I faced, I’m still reliving it every night.”  
Rosalie squeezed her hand again, “Maybe you should just tell Cullen.”  
“No,” Isolda said stubbornly, “He’ll insist on moving away, possibly giving up you and Mia. This is something that I need to deal with on my own.”  
“No you don’t,” Rosalie shot back, “Any insult to you is an insult to me, if you do move away then I’ll join you.”  
“Thank you, Rosie,” Isolda said, hugging the younger Rutherford, “Have you heard anything about where these rumors are coming from?”  
Rosalie shook her head, “Who ever is spreading them hasn’t included me yet. So either they know I’ll tell Cullen or they’re not desperate enough to get someone like me on their side.”  
The two parted ways as Isolda continued on home to get dinner started. 

Cullen sat in the healers’ clinic when Bronn approached, rubbing his wrists, “What’s going on?” He asked sitting down next to his stepfather.  
“You know how your mum’s been having stomach problems? Well, I managed to talk her into coming in.”  
Bronn nodded rubbing his wrists.  
“Hey,” Cullen said grabbing Bronn’s shoulder, “Has anyone been harassing you?”  
Bronn shook his head, “I must be Ferelden enough for people not to think of me being Free folk. Not enough to strike the old resentments like Mom.”  
“Old resentments?” Cullen asked, “What does that mean?”  
“You’re from Honnleath, Dad, weren’t you there when it was attacked?”  
Cullen looked down at his hands as Bronn continued, “There’s a deep river of blood that flows between you Clayne and us Chasind, a river, generations deep with hatred, that river doesn’t just dry up over night.”  
The pair sat in silence for a long while healers rushed about around them.  
“If your Mum and I did move up to Vigil’s Keep, would you join us?”  
“I have some news,” Bronn said looking up at his stepfather, “You might not like it though.”  
“What is it?”  
“Aurum found out something about the men who attacked Mom,” The mage said, wringing his hands, “Some of them were the brothers of some women here in town, Aurum found out their names and they’re all Mia’s friends.”  
Cullen stared at Bronn for a while in silence as he continued, “Now, I don’t know if Mia is involved, but Aurum said the women wearing planing something…something big.”  
Cullen felt his anger raise, but he and Bronn stood as a healer by the name of Blanche came out of the room followed by Isolda.  
“How is she?” Cullen asked, he’d been up nearly all night because Isolda had been about a half dozen times to wretch her guts out.  
She’d try to tell him she was fine but she’d be keeled over again soon enough,  
“Well...there’s nothing wrong,” the healer said, “In fact, everything should sort itself out in a few months time, perhaps in Bloomingtide or Justinian.”  
Cullen looked over at Isolda, who was almost glowing, “A few months?” He asked hesitantly, “Are...are you?”  
Isolda nodded, with a wide smile, “Yes, you got me.”  
Cullen grabbed his wife, lifted her into his arms and spun her around, “You’re pregnant?!”  
Isolda giggled happily as she kissed her husband, “Yes, yes husband, we’re going to have a cub.”  
“Yes, congratulations,” Blanche said, “Now, Isolda has mentioned her, uh, last attempt to have a child.”  
Isolda’s smile faded at the memory of Bronn’s lost younger sibling, gone before they even had a chance to be a boy or girl.  
“But,” Blanche continued, “Nothing says that you won’t be able to carry this baby to term. But I need to look into mage pregnancies, which is highly difficult because the Chantry claims that mages never have kids. Now, I want you to come in for regular checkups to be safe and you need to take it easy for the next month or so, I want you to come be next week.”  
Turning to Bronn, she said, “Bronn, you can have the rest of the day off.”  
“Okay, thank you,” Cullen said still holding on to Isolda’s hand, they paid the healer. He could feel the grin on his lips as they left into the cold late morning air, he hugged his wife again, still thinking about the news, “A baby.”  
Bronn hugged his parents, “Well, at least those sleepless nights were worth something.”  
“I was hoping that it would take, but I didn’t think that we’d succeeded so soon,” Isolda giggled, “I’m so happy.”  
Cullen pulled away from his wife, “C’mon let’s go celebrate, there might be snow in the coming week, so we should stock up on provisions, and maybe some books or something to entertain us?”  
His enthusiasm was really contagious, and Isolda nodded, even Bronn was happy. They stopped at a general store and after ordering their regular supplies, they browsed the rest of the store. Cullen selected some books that he knew he and Isolda would enjoy while Isolda looked over the sewing supplies. Cullen came up behind her and placed his hand on her shoulder as she felt a tear roll down her cheek as she looked down at the brightly colored yarns, realizing she couldn’t sew anything for her baby.  
Even though Isolda had gotten used to using her right hand after losing her dominant one, every so often, she’d be reminded of one more thing that she couldn’t do anymore.  
“I can’t do that anymore,” she said, wiping the tear away, “How are we going to do this?”  
“We’ll be fine, Dear,” Cullen said, “C’mon, they’ll hold our stuff while we finish our other errands then we’ll get lunch.”  
Rosalie came into the Apothecary while Isolda and Cullen were paying for their purchases, ginger tea to deal with the nausea Isolda had been dealing with for the past couple of weeks. Isolda smiled when Rosalie came in.  
“What brings you in today?” Rosalie asked.  
“I’m pregnant,” Isolda said.  
Rosalie squealed in delight and jumped up and down, hugging her sister-in-law, “Oh, Maker, Isolda, I’m so happy for you! How far are you?”  
“About two or three months.”  
“Oh, this’ll be so much fun, we can make baby things, oh I can’t wait.”  
She hugged Bronn, who did his best to not swat her away, “You must be so happy.”  
“Well,” the skinny mage said, scratching the back of his neck, “At least those sleepless nights weren’t wasted.”  
Rosalie playfully pushed his arm, “Only a boy would say that.”

“We’ll need to keep the news to ourselves for a while,” Cullen said over lunch, “At least for the next month or so, just to be safe.”  
Rosalie nodded, “I was going to write Branson today, can I tell him?”  
“No, not yet,” Isolda said, a hand on her belly, “I want to tell him and Kalin myself.”  
“And don’t tell Mia,” Cullen added, holding onto Isolda’s hand, “We’ll do that ourselves, she hates getting secondhand news.”  
“Bronn?” Rosalie asked, turning to the mage, “Are you doing anything next Tuesday?”  
“I work,” Bronn said curtly as he ate, “When I’m not working, I’m resting my hands.”  
“He’s right,” Isolda said.  
“What’s it like to use magic?” Rosalie continued to ask.  
“I have to rest my hands every evening,” Bronn said sternly, “Healing is harder to do than fire or ice.”  
“But what does it feel like?”  
Bronn placed his silverware down and grabbed the girl’s hands. Rosalie watched as a warm soothing glow emitted from Bronn’s hands into hers. The warmth creeped through Rosalie’s hands and up her arms, filling her. She looked up and saw that Bronn was very handsome, she felt a new warmth was growing in her belly.  
“That’s what it feels like,” Bronn said letting go of the stunned girl’s hands, “Multiply that feeling and stretch it out to nearly eight hours a day, your hands would be screaming to be chopped off.”  
Isolda laughed as Rosalie watched Bronn for the rest of the lunch.


	13. Unforeseen Consequences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tensions continue to rise in South Reach and Isolda receives a letter from her loved ones.

Chapter Thirteen

Rosalie knocked on Cullen and Isolda’s door Tuesday morning and was greeted by her frazzled looking brother.  
“Cullen, what’s going on?” The girl asked as she brought in her bag full of cloth samples for baby clothes.  
“Isolda’s been puking all night,” Cullen said running his fingers through his hair, “She can’t keep anything down and we’re getting worried.”  
He looked to his bedroom door, “Bronn’s with her now and we’re heading to the healer when she feels up to it. I’ve also contacted with a few friends of ours, Dorian of House Pavus and Enchanter Vivienne, Dorian has suggested a few different Tevinter home remedies to deal with vomiting but he’s admitted that pregnancy is a little beyond his personal experiences. Vivienne said she’d be sending one of the College’s best maternity healers to check on Isolda personally for her pregnancy and to help deliver the baby when the time came.”  
“Dorian?” Rosalie asked really excited, “Do you mean the Tevinter Mage? Is he coming here?”  
“No, he can’t make it this early,” Cullen explained as he and Rosalie sat down in front of the fire, “He’s really excited about the baby though and is planning to be here at least a month before the birth.”  
Rosalie squealed, excited to meet a hero from the Inquisition.  
“Rosalie?” Isolda asked as she and Bronn entered the main room and sat down beside her younger sister-in-law, “Is everything alright?”  
She accepted the ginger tea from Cullen prepared for her and she wrapped her hand around the mug.  
“Yes,” the younger Rutherford said as she dug into the bag beside her, “The roads were clear and I wanted to see how you were, so I decided to come over with fabrics for baby clothes.”  
“I’ve been better,” Isolda said placing her hand onto Rosalie’s, “But I feel better knowing that you care.”  
Rosalie smiled back.  
“Let me finish this and then we can go,” Isolda said turning her attention to Cullen and Bronn, who both nodded, “Wanna join us?” She asked Rosalie.  
“Sure, I need to get more sewing kit anyway.”  
While the group waited for Isolda to finish her tea, Cullen carefully removed all of the metal adornments from his wife’s hair braids. Soon the family got dressed for the harsh frigid winds and departed for town.  
“Remember our date tonight?” Rosalie asked past the thick lambswool scarf wrapped about her neck.  
Bronn’s cheeks reddened as he spluttered a bit before vanishing in a cloud of black misty smoke, when the smoke cleared he was replaced by a small beige bird that flapped its wings before it took off toward South Reach.  
“What’s with him?” Rosalie asked watching the mage flap away.  
“C’mon, Isolda and I can ride my horse, you can ride Isolda’s,” Cullen said saddling both horses and then helping Isolda up and then himself. Rosalie got up on Isolda’s horse and the trio headed for town.

“Cullen, how are you?” Alexi asked.  
Cullen was walking out of the Apothecary with the ingredients on the list that Dorian had provided while Isolda was at the healer with Rosalie.  
“Did you make it through the blizzard alright?”  
“Yes,” Cullen answered, “We’ve seen worse, and our horses are used to such weather. We just came by to pick up some things.”  
“We?” Alexi asked noticing the two horses were hitched up by the town entrance.  
“Isolda and Rosalie are with me-they’re at the Healers now,” Cullen said, “We have a few errands to run and then we’re heading home.”  
“Oh, okay,” Alexi said as she looked in the bag, “Why would she need ginseng?”  
“She’s been having stomach problems for the past week or two, nothing serious,” Cullen explained.  
“Oh, well that’s good it’s not serious,” Alexi said, “Listen, I was hoping that you could help me with some problems around my house, the roof is sagging in slightly.”  
“I’m not much of a carpenter, but I think Sidneé’s husband might be.”  
“Oh, you mean James?” Alexi asked, “I’ve already asked him and he said it was a two or three man job.”  
“Ok, I guess I could take a look.”  
“Great!” Alexi clapped her hands together, “Can I see you tomorrow?”  
“Sure.”

Isolda was quiet on the ride back home seemingly lost in her thoughts. She silently made ginseng tea and didn’t seem to notice when Cullen bade Rosalie goodbye for the day. With Rosalie gone, Cullen saw that his wife was sitting at the table, holding onto a mug of steaming tea.  
“Is everything alright, Dear?” Cullen asked as he sat down at her side, “Is your stomach giving you problems?”  
“Not at the moment,” Isolda answered flatly, “Cullen, we need to talk about what Blanche said.”  
“Ok, what happened?”  
“She says that I could have trouble with our baby because of my size.”  
Cullen took a second as he thought about what he would say, “Did she give any advice?”  
“She said it could be a little difficult, but not impossible, Husband,” Isolda said, “She just said that I need to be careful and I might be really large at the end, and It might be a difficult delivery.”  
“How difficult?” Cullen asked, he squeezed her hand, “Could you die?”  
“Maybe…” Isolda admitted solemnly tightening her grip on her mug before she continued, “Blanche offered some herbs that would…that would… end my pregnancy.”  
She could feel Cullen’s shock from across the table, “I told her that if she suggested an abortion again, I would stop checking up with her and follow my people’s methods for pregnancy instead.”  
“Isolda,” Cullen breathed tugging on her hand, “Come here.”  
Isolda stood and came around the table and sat on her husband’s lap, sighing as his hands started at the small of her back and drifted down to hold onto her ass.  
“I can’t ask you to carry our baby if it’s going to kill you, you’ve given up so much.”  
Isolda leaned down and kissed her husband as she took his hand from her ass and brought it to above her belly.  
“It’s my choice, Husband,” Isolda whispered as she cupped his face and wiped away the tears that had fallen, “You are my heart and nothing in Thedas, the Fade or the Void will prevent us from having a happy family.”  
“Then what do we do?” Cullen asked, resting his head on her breasts, listening to her heartbeat.  
“I just need to be careful, I can still work around the house, but if I feel uncomfortable then I’ll have to stop. Dorian said that he’ll be here for the birth and Vivienne said that she’d send down a personal healer to check up on me.”  
“Husband,” Isolda whispered sweetly, “Everything that Blanche has said is a ‘maybe’ or ‘could be.’ I will not stop this pregnancy based on what ifs, please tell me you’re happy.”  
“I’m afraid to lose you,” Cullen admitted stroking his thumb across Isolda’s belly lovingly, “I love you both so much, I can’t lose you both. Just, promise me that you’ll tell me when you need help, no more hiding it.”  
“Alright, Husband,” Isolda whispered, leaning in to kiss his lips before standing up, “I  
promise.”  
“Good,” Cullen exhaled, “Do you need anything?”  
“I was thinking about making something hearty, I need to put on a healthy weight for the baby, sweet potatoes, eggs and some of the chicken from last night. Then I’ll probably just lie down till dinner.”  
“Ok,” Cullen said, “James’ll be over tomorrow midday, we’re going over to Alexi’s house to help her with some minor repairs.”  
“Why you?” Isolda asked suspicious, “When was this setup?”  
“Well, I ran into Alexi in town, she and James asked me if I would be willing to lend a hand, apparently James’ usual helper couldn’t make it and Zachery’s planning his anniversary.”  
“Alright then,” Isolda sighed reluctantly, turning to the fireplace, “I just wish it wasn’t her.”  
Cullen wrapped his arms around her, “I could find out if she’s involved.”  
Isolda didn’t respond, making a point about looking at the fire. Cullen kissed her neck and left to get ready for work.

Later that night, Bronn was cleaning up tools after a minor surgery when Rosalie came into the clinic.  
“There you are,” the cheerful girl said as she skipped over to the mage, “C’mon, you’re late for this evening.”  
“I said I’m busy,” Bronn shot back as he removed Rosalie’s hands from his arm.  
“Go on, Bronn,” Blanche said as she took his place, “I’ll finish up here, go enjoy your date.”  
Bronn was dragged by his arm across town, he earned some the ire of a few men as  
“Here we are,” Rosalie cheerfully declared, they stood in front of a pub called the Boar’s Head, Bronn felt that something was amiss about the whole thing, but the giddy girl pulled him inside before he could really think about it. Rosalie dragged Bronn through the mostly empty pub through a door in the back, Bronn looked about the small room, there was a small table with a few lit candles and silverware and glasses set for a date with two chairs set on opposite sides. There was a door in the corner that either lead out into the pub or an alleyway.  
“Sit here, I’ll be back with a little surprise,” Rosalie said vanishing through the door.  
Bronn grumbled as he sat down in a chair and waited for the girl to return with her surprise. After a few minutes, the door opposite Bronn opened and Rosalie pulled in Jeannette, she was wearing a well made dress of blue cloth and her normally plain beauty was marred in a dusting of brightly colored makeup. Bronn’s cheeks reddened and his cock stiffened slightly as he thought of what the young Orlesian woman’s beautifully shaped body looked like under those linens and silks. Bronn averted his eyes when he saw that Jeannette had taken notice of his eye line and she offered him a shy blushing smile.  
Rosalie had her sit down across from Bronn, she excused herself as she left through the door again. The two mages awkwardly looked up and met eyes for a moment before looking away. Rosalie soon returned with a pitcher of ale, she set it between the two.  
“So,” she poured ale into the mugs and clapped her hands, “We have an excellent fish that’s almost done, I’ll be right back, you two lovebirds catch up.”  
With that, she left out the door to the pub kitchens. Bronn and Jeannette were alone again.  
“So…” Jeannette blushed a deep crimson, she tucked some hair behind her ear.  
“Did she drag you too?” Bronn asked, cocking a thumb at the door their capturer had exited through.  
“Yes,” Jeannette sheepishly admitted, “She told my father that she needed my help with something.”  
Bronn nodded, he rubbed his neck and glanced up at the beautiful girl before him. Jeannette was the first person Bronn had really talked to when he’d been sent to the Circle Tower. She had shown up about a month after him and she had approached him offering her hand in friendship.  
There was a very long silence before Bronn broke it.  
“So…are we stuck here?”  
Jeannette looked up at the door, “Looks like it.”  
There was another extended length of silence, neither saying anything. Rosalie burst in with a pair of steaming plates she placed before both mages.  
“Alright, is there anything else I can do for you two lovey doves?”  
“Yeah,” Bronn spoke up, “What’s going on?”  
“Well…” Rosalie placed a finger to her lips, “I saw you two snogging at the Satinalia fest, so I thought that I’d play matchmaker for my adorable baby sister and her crush.”  
With that, she left to give the two privacy.  
“I can’t believe that she’d actually do this,” Jeannette leaned her forehead on her hands and sighed “I mean Rosalie’s always been a rather bubbly girl, but the fact that she’s trying to play matchmaker with us?”  
Bronn nodded as he looked down at the fish dinner before him, he realized just how hungry he was. He picked up the fork and knife and dug in. Jeannette did the same. They were silent as they ate, before Bronn broke the silence.  
“So…what’ve you been up to?”  
Jeannette swallowed her bite before she spoke, “I’m stationed in Denerim training to become a Knight Enchanter, just like Lady Robyn Cousland of Highever.”  
The two friends chatted for a long time as they ate their dinner, discussing their days in The Circle and their old colleagues, both those who were still alive and gone. The two usually reserved mages gradually loosened up as the ale flowed, Jeannette even playfully slapped Bronn’s arm at one point as she laughed at his corny jokes.  
Jeannette placed her cup down, she tried to sober up enough to ask a question, “Had you been given the choice, would you have rejoined the Circle?”  
Bronn looked up at his friend and thought through his ale, “I really can’t say, would you?”  
Jeannette raised her finger and waged it side to side as she tutted, “I asked you first, Mister Bronn.”  
Bronn looked down at his hands for a second before saying, “If you’d have asked me before the Rebellion, I would’ve, but now…”  
“But now?”  
“I appreciate the freedoms that I enjoy now.”  
“Freedoms…” Jeannette placed her hand on Bronn’s, “Like marriage?”  
Bronn’s face reddened even more and he nervously coughed into his hand, “Well…I wouldn’t say that marriage is off my table…I’m just not really ready for that…not yet at least.”  
“I’m glad to hear that,” she mused as she turned over his hand and traced an old scar on his palm, “It’d be rather heartbreaking if you’d forgotten your old promise to me.”  
Jeannette reached down to her dress and undid a few buttons so that Bronn could see her cleavage. Bronn definitely noticed, he looked away nervously.  
Rosalie came back in, “Now, since it’s snowing pretty hard, so I’ve prepared a room for you two to stay the night.”  
Rosalie helped Bronn and Jeannette up to their room, she helped them out of their clothes and laughed as both mages collapsed on the double wide bed. Rosalie tucked them in and kissed Jeannette’s cheek before she blew out the candle and left.

About a week later, Isolda was at home trying to avoid ‘strenuous activities’ as per Blanche’s instructions, she’d been cooped up in her house for the past few days because of the small blizzard that had rolled through town leaving a half dozen feet of snow and since there really wasn’t too much that she could do, the witch was stuck reading.  
She piled firewood into the fireplace, she placed kindling underneath the logs, with a snapped her fingers she sent sparks into the bundle of dried twigs and birch bark, she picked it up gingerly and brought it up to the flue and soon enough the airflow drew up the smoke and flames. She sat down on the couch in front of the fire and looked over the four letters she’d received from the local couriers’ guild on her latest trip to town, Barker jumped onto the couch and nuzzled onto her lap. Isolda giggled at the hound and rubbed his head.  
The first of the letters was from the Office of the Dean of the Imperial College, who was asking her if she would be interested in working with the College to catalogue her life experiences… for the twentieth time in the last six months…despite her voiced objections to doing so…each time. Isolda folded up the letter and flicked it into the fire.  
The second letter was from a former Inquisition Leftenant, informing her that the last of the smaller paperwork regarding Skyhold’s transition into a Ferelden frontier base was completed and that a full regiment of Ferelden’s First Royal Mountaineers would be setting up shop in the next two weeks to assist travelers and tradesmen with possible rockslides or avalanches covering up trade routes through the Frostbacks and so on.   
The third letter intrigued her though, it was from Dagna and Sera and was in Dagna’s large cursive script.

Dear Isolda,  
It feels like a year since we last spoke, so I have some news. Firstly, Sera and I got married, yeah I know, what were the odds and all that. She proposed after the Winter Palace. Our wedding was small like your’s, and now we’re living in Kirkwall. Sera actually got a job working for Varric, a lot of problems that still need fixing here. Varric and Makila are doing alright, Malcolm and Merrill had their second baby about a month ago, a girl, they named her Aveline. Marian and Fenris found out that they’re going to have their first sometime in the Spring.  
Real talk, I’ve been studying your old arm (hope you don’t mind, the magic from the Anchor has preserved the muscles and bones and stuff, still a nasty charcoal black though) and this is a serious stretch, but I think that Makila and I might be able to build you a new arm.  
Now, this isn’t a guarantee that we can, Mr Otis said that this sort of build isn’t the trickiest thing to do, it just requires a lot of planning and weeks of construction. He’s done this twice before.  
The option is there, if you want it.  
Please write back as soon as possible.  
Love,  
Dagna 

Isolda probably reread the letter a half dozen times over, and kept coming to the same conclusion…she could get her arm back. She of course knew that she could regrow her arm with magic, her mother had repaired the bones in her hand once when Isolda was younger. But the pain that had caused her could only be compared to…well, having your bones knit back together in the span of roughly an hour, and with her newly found pregnancy, she couldn’t risk the pain of regrowing her arm.  
She decided to ask Cullen about the possibility of making a replacement arm, she folded the letter and placed it on her nightstand before returning to the last letter.  
The last one had yesterday’s date and the mark of her father, a rearing bear and griffin with a war hammer between and was in her Father’s neat handwriting in the Forest dialect of Old Tongue, the dialect that most Chasind used if they could write. The Avvar would mostly use the Mountain dialect and The Clayne had used the Grass dialect before converting to Common Tongue when they became Ferelden.

Issa,  
I hope you haven’t forgotten how to read and that this letter sees you well. Leliana and Robyn have both informed me of what happened at the Winter Palace months ago. Axel has also informed me of where you, your son and your new husband now live, though I must say that I never pictured you choosing to live amongst Lowlanders, let alone marry a former mage hunter. Axel has also informed me of a potential problem you might be facing with the locals of South Reach not wanting you to be there, Arl Bryland has informed me that he is looking into it. But I don’t trust the words of a man who doesn’t love all of his cubs.  
Your mother and I have decided that since you’re having these troubles and your mother’s fifty-fifth and my sixtieth birthdays are both in the spring before the snow on the roads melts and clear, we would like for your family to move up before the roads get too blocked with snow. Wojtek and two of his now twenty daughters, Maygery and Myah have offered to join Axel and Hugina to help you pack your belongings for the trip, they should be there in about five or six days if the weather’s good.  
I’m looking forward to seeing you again. Please write back as soon as you’re able to.  
Your Father

Isolda’s heart skipped a beat as she reread her father’s words, she grew excited about seeing her family again, especially her father. She’d always been a bit of a daddy’s girl, growing up she’d always wanted to be near her father, following behind him and copying his demeanor. But her excitement fell slightly when she thought about the logistics of going north to see them. She’d have to make sure the house was accounted for and all of their furniture, they only had the one small wagon and then there was the matter of Cullen and Bronn, how would their bosses feel about this? She racked her mind for the better part of the day figuring it until she showed Cullen and Bronn Dagna’s letter after dinner later that evening, Cullen looked over the letter twice before showing Bronn for his opinion.  
“Well?” Isolda asked.  
“It seems rather cut and dry, Mom,” Bronn said, “Dagna thinks she can make you an arm.”  
“Why not just regrow your arm, Dear?” Cullen asked her, he’d sort of wondered why Isolda hadn’t already, even if he’d never asked.  
Isolda’s hand drifted down to her belly, “Because the pain I would feel could cause my body to go into shock and cause me to miscarry.”  
“There’s another thing,” she said as she brought out her father’s letter, “My parents’ birthdays are in a few months and my father is sending down a few of our family to help us pack for the trip north.”  
“Who is he sending?”  
“My Honor Uncle, Wojtek, and two of his daughters, Maygery and Myah, Axel and our younger half sister, Hugina, will be joining them, they should be here in about five days if the roads are clear and the weather is good.”  
“Ok then, let’s go,” Cullen said without a moment of hesitation.  
Isolda looked up at her husband’s surprise eagerness, “But, Husband, what about your job?”  
Cullen shrugged, “I’ll work something out with Captain Davison, besides, I’m going to meet your family someday, might as well be at a party.”  
“I suppose,” Isolda turned to her son, “Bronn?”  
The boy nodded, “I’ll work something out with my boss, though she might just fire me.”  
“So,” Cullen said getting out a wax pencil and some paper, “If we’re going up to visit your family, I should learn about them right.”  
It struck Isolda just how little she’d told Cullen about her family up to this point.  
“Well, I’m the oldest of ten siblings between two moms,” she explained as she drew her family tree, “The order is Me, Simone (Adopted) (Dead), Egil the Husky, Axel, the conjoined twin brothers, Axton and Theon, Hugina, Munina and twin sisters, Sofia and Daffinia, not including the possible siblings that I don’t know about.”  
“Ok,” Cullen said, he and Isolda had had several lengthy conversations about Free folk customs, including the idea of clan chieftains occasionally having multiple wives. Isolda had explained that one wife was for duty and the other was for love. The marriage for duty usually didn’t last any longer then a year or two and usually didn’t result in children.  
“My Father is the oldest of twelve total siblings spanning across one wife and three women, all but five are dead,” she continued as she filled out her aunts and uncles, “The order is My Father, Vaeldir (Dead), Svetlani (Dead), Vahn (Dead), Triffen, Miloslaw (Dead), Borvin (Dead), Jeryan (Dead), Emmarit (Dead), Walder, Darianne and Freydis. All have or had at least one child who may or may not be dead themselves.”  
“Ok,” Cullen said.  
“My Grandfather, Odin, is the youngest of fifteen total siblings, he’s in Amaranthine.”  
Cullen looked up at Isolda, “You’re not going to write their names?”  
Isolda shook her head, “I don’t know them, my Grandfather never told me their names, just that they all died before my father was born.”  
Later that evening, Isolda wrote her response to Dagna, telling the dwarf of her pregnancy, accepting her offer of a prosthetic arm and that she’d be moving to Vigil’s Keep. She also wrote to her Father, accepting his offer and that she was excited to see him again.

About two days later, Mia opened her door and was surprised to see Cullen and Rosalie standing outside.  
“What do you want now?” She asked suspicious.  
“We came over to see if you were alright after the snow,” Cullen said softly, “May we come in?”  
“C’mon, Mia, we haven’t sat down talked for nearly two weeks,” Rosalie said, “We need to mend this rift.”  
Mia looked them both over before sighing and letting them in.  
“And the better half?” Mia asked Cullen, arms folded, “Shouldn’t she be here to mend the rift as well?”  
“She’s been having minor stomach problems for the past month or so,” Cullen said looking at Rosalie, “It’s a part of why we’re here.”  
“Well,” Mia sighed, “Since you’re here, I might as well tell you my own news as well.”  
The siblings sat down at Mia’s table and with a straight face, Mia sighed, “I’m pregnant.”  
There was a lengthy stillness before Rosalie squealed happily, “You’re pregnant?”  
“Yes,” Mia smiled, “I haven’t told Zachery and Jeannette yet.”  
Rosalie jumped up and hugged her sister, “But I thought you couldn’t have children, didn’t you and Zachery give up a few years ago?”  
“We did,” Mia wiped a few tears away, “The healer told me that I was too old to have children safely, but when I started having morning sickness and I hadn’t bled in over two months, I contacted the healer and she told that I was carrying Zachery’s bun in my oven.”  
“How far along are you?” Cullen asked, genuinely happy for his sister.  
“It’ll be four months next week.”  
“This is truly wonderful,” Rosalie said as she looked at Cullen, “We have great news too.”  
“Mia, Isolda’s also pregnant, almost four months too.”  
Mia stiffened and her smile vanished, “You and your wife…are…?”  
Cullen’s smile was replaced with steeled conviction, “Yes, why wouldn’t I love my wife? You’re probably both due for the same month.”  
“Isn’t that wonderful, Mia?” Rosalie asked.  
“Wonderful?” Mia went pale and asked with shaky breath, “Cullen, what were you thinking?”  
“I’m thinking that coming here was a big mistake, Isolda and I are gonna have a big family. Something I never thought I’d ever have the chance of having.”  
“Cullen, it’s not that I’m not grateful for the peace she brought about, I’m just being realistic here. I mean, she’s Chasind, not only are you from two separate cultures, your whole relationship was made during wartime and you-you married in secret. Does she even believe in The Maker? It’s also plain as day that people here disapprove of your marriage and-and-” Mia was reeling from the news and she found it difficult to find the words, “And now you’re bringing in half-breed children-”  
“Don’t you fucking DARE call our child a half-breed!” Cullen roared, slamming his fist on the table so hard, it cracked under him, “I swear, if you fucking dare say that around Isolda-” He straightened himself before he said something that he’d regret forever, “I wasn’t aware that you were ever in war, Mia, that you know so much about wartime romances. Perhaps you should consult with King Alistair and Queen Elspeth then. You want to believe that we’re only held together by the heat of battle, that is the furthest thing from the truth. I was always back at Skyhold while Isolda was out on the road, fighting to stitch the world back together. What about the two years of peace we had after Corypheus had been vanquished? We were together all that time traveling on diplomatic visits, parties and various other events. We hid our relationship for diplomatic reasons, but we made it through all of that. We won’t hide our love anymore and if people refuse to accept that fact then they can fuck right off!”  
“We came here because I wanted to be with you again, to be a family again, because even at my lowest moments in life, Kinloch Hold, when my fellows were butchered like pigs at a market or Kirkwall, when my commanding officer turned out to be insane because of a religious idol made of poisoned stone, I could only think of you and Branson and the chance to finally meet Rosalie, to finally be a family again,” He turned to the door, “But I’m done with you, Mia. I kept giving you chances because Isolda and Rosalie have tried to see the good in you, but I don’t. We’re moving to Amaranthine to live with Isolda’s family and Branson. I’m happy for you and Zachery, really I am, enjoy raising you child without us in your lives. Keep the news of Isolda’s pregnancy to yourself, no actually just forget we told you anything.”  
He looked over at Rosalie, “I’ll wait outside.”  
Mia stood and she frantically called after her brother, but the door slammed shut. Rosalie got up and went over to the door.  
“Rose,” Mia called after her, on the verge of tears.  
The youngest Rutherford took a moment before turning back to her ‘sister,’ “Fitting, isn’t it? That you’d call Cullen’s baby a half-breed, when your eldest daughter is one herself.”  
“Rose?” Mia asked in pained shock, the tears started, “How did you…?”  
“Mum and Dad were nearing their seventies, you’re thirty-eight, Cullen’s thirty-two, Branson’s twenty-six...and I’m eighteen,” the girl said meeting Mia’s eyes, “It doesn’t take a genius to know those numbers don’t match.”  
Mia could only silently watch as Rosalie continued, looking down at her long curly wheat blonde hair, “How can the youngest be a redhead in a family of blondes?”  
Rosalie was at the edge of tears herself, but she continued because this had to be said, “Branson told me a week ago, ‘A tall strong man with shining star eyes, you would sneak out behind Mum and Dad’s backs and head to the barn after dark nearly every night from Spring til a week before the attack on Honnleath that Winter.’”  
Mia looked down at her feet ashamed, “Nine months later… you were born,” she finished.  
“You could’ve at least told me the truth!” Rosalie practically screamed through her shaking breath at her birth mother.  
“I’m moving up to Amaranthine with Cullen and Isolda, maybe I can find my dad up there, enjoy raising this child without me, Mum!”  
Mia said nothing as her daughter opened the door and slammed it shut, she slumped down at the table and started to weep into her hands.  
She’d fucked up, Mia knew that and now she’d probably just lost not just both of her brothers but also her daughter too. She stayed there for what felt like hours, weeping into her hands till she ran out of tears to weep. It was very dark when Zachery and Jeannette came home, he opened the door and saw his wife sitting at their table, shaking.  
“Darling,” he asked as he went to her side, “What’s wrong?”  
Mia looked up at the tall Orlesian man with bloodshot eyes, her loving husband for almost twelve years, the man who’d accepted her, her brother and her baseborn daughter into his home after her parents had died from the Blight, the man who despite her worst qualities, kissed her and told her everyday that he loved her. Mia looked up at her lovingly husband and wept. Zachery pulled her into his arms and held her till she stopped. Jeannette came around the table and held onto her mum as well.  
“Honey,” she said through her shaking breath, “I’ve fucked up and I don’t know if I can fix it.”

Cullen and Rosalie walked back to his home, neither talking about what had happened. They were at the gate to Cullen and Isolda’s home when Rosalie stopped and broke down into her hands.  
Cullen pulled her close and tried to comfort her, he’d heard everything she’d said to Mia through the door, “It’s not your fault, Rose, it was never your fault.”  
“She could’ve at least told me,” Rosalie sobbed into her brother’s, no, her uncle’s shoulder, “But no, she had to pull the unfortunate little sister routine.”  
“How long did you really know?”  
“It had always been nagging at me a bit,” the girl admitted, wiping her tears with her mittens, “My natural hair colour is closer to ginger, I’ve been using dyes to keep it blonde like all of yours’, Mia never made me do it though.”  
“Why did you then?”  
“The only redhead in a family of blondes?”  
“Point taken, but you should be proud of your hair, like Isolda is,” Cullen suggested, “Look at Bronn.”  
“Maybe I should,” she conceded sniffing as she wiped away a tear, she looked up at her uncle, he wasn’t her brother anymore, he was her uncle, he’d always been her uncle even if they hadn’t known yet, “I just-why does this hurt so much?”  
“It hurts because despite everything, she’s still your mum and you still love her.”  
The two stayed like that for a long while before Cullen broke the stillness, “Do you really want to give up everything here to move up to Amaranthine?”  
“Branson and Simone suggested the very thing after they got married, besides I can’t pay my rent this month, short of sucking off my landlady again and I can always find work up north.”  
The door to the house opened and Isolda and Barker came out to see what was happening, Cullen explained everything. Isolda looked at Rosalie and wrapped her arm around the poor girl.  
“You’re staying with us tonight,” Isolda told the younger girl in her motherly way, “We’ll go to your house tomorrow and work everything out with your landlady and then you’ll come with us to live with my family, ok?”  
Rosalie could only nodded as she was welcomed into the home.

What followed could really only be called a very hectic few days. Upon Isolda’s wishes and her assistance, Rosalie had washed out the remaining dye from her hair revealing that, in fact, she was a redhead. Isolda and Cullen went with Rosalie to speak with her landlady, a prickly bigoted fat pig of a woman by the name of Thuma Bellimor, to settle Rosalie’s lease. But when they arrived they discovered that Miss Bellimor had been arrested by the city guardsmen on extortion, rape and suspected murder charges. The guardsmen at the seized house told Rosalie that she needn’t pay her rent because her lease was effectively void, but she would be required to remove all of her possessions from her house, as was the law. Isolda and Cullen and even Bronn spent the rest of the day helping Rosalie move her belongings to their house. The following day, Bronn returned from work early and told his parents that he’d been fired without pay for quote ‘causing low morale’, he also returned with Cole of all people or spirits. The family sat over dinner while the mage explained that he’d found the spirit sitting with the family of a very elderly man who had just died from the old age of ninety-eight, the spirit was comforting the man’s daughter and grandkids.  
Cullen was in the barn tending to the three horses on the fifth day, readying them for the journey north when he heard something tapping on the door. He walked out of the barn and looked up, he saw a raven circling around the skies before it swooped down toward the stone fence and perched onto the shoulder of a woman who patiently stood at the gate. The woman had her head wrapped in thick beige yellow cloth with a lacquered wooden mask covering her real face with horizontal eye slits so thin a coin on its face could slide through and blooms of steam rushed out through hundreds of needle small breaths. She had long hair like Isolda’s but her’s was paler than the snow on the ground and it was twisted and knotted into a single thick cord that fell over her non padded shoulder. She was wearing a thick wine red woolen dress and a pale blue leather coat with shoulder padding which the raven perched upon, her arms and hands were bound in the same cloth as her head coverings and worn leather gloves. The woman seemingly watched Cullen as he approached the stone fence.  
“Uh, hello,” Cullen greeted the woman, “Are you one of Isolda’s family?”  
“Yes, I’m Hugina,” the woman said in a slightly muffled voice with a similar accent to Axel as she extended a gloved hand and a strong grip, “You must be Issa’s new husband?”  
“That’s right, my name’s Cullen.”  
“Cullen, huh,” Hugina mused as she looked him over, “Well, Issa certainly knows how to pick ‘em.”  
Cullen laughed nervously, “So…where’s the rest?”  
Hugina reached up to the raven on her shoulder and placed it on the fence, the bird spasmed and swelled like a feathery balloon before popping in a cloud of inky black smoke and feathers, as it cleared a young girl was sitting where the raven had been before. The girl was probably in her pre-teens, she was thin but not gaunt, with curly black hair that fanned out from her head in the shape of a fluffy ball, her eyes were pure silver with thick golden rings and her skin was a shade of medium ochre. She wore a thick black furry coat that was a three sizes to big and reached just above her knees, her skinny legs were covered by multiple tattered skirts and she wore a braided necklace about her thin neck adorned with small metal beads engraved with old looking runes and a bear claw as the centerpiece completed her look. The girl gave Cullen a wide playful grin with a few missing teeth, she climbed off the fence and extended her small gloved hand.

Rosalie was walking along the cleared road about halfway between Cullen and Isolda’s home and town, she was nearing a small frozen creek. Rosalie had told her friends of her moving to Amaranthine, they weren’t happy. One of them, her more fair weather friend, Clara Swann, had taken Rosalie’s tankard of ale and splashed it in her face, while another friend, Irene Linden, had shouted so that everyone in the Boar’s Head could hear her call Rosalie a stupid whore for abandoning Mia and following Isolda up to those other Bog Devils.  
The solemn girl looked down at the frozen water of the creek, she swooped down to pick up a rock and flung it down onto the ice as hard as she could. She repeatedly did this until she noticed a weird looking log that lay too far from the frozen water’s edge, Rose picked up a rock and wound up before she flung the rock into the log. But instead of splintering like a log should, the log gave a blood curdling screech and bolted along the rocky bank to Rose.  
Rose stumbled back in surprise landing hard on the rocks, cutting her palm and leaving a smear of blood. The creature was nearly as long as she was tall and had patchy matted inky green black fur from the base of its head, along the back of its stout neck and down its back, what wasn’t covered in fur was covered in gleaming black leathery square scales. It stood on four muscular scaly legs as thick as her arms and each leg ended in a foot with four long toes with jagged hooked claws at the ends of each toe. It’s head looked similar to the salamanders that the boys back in Honnleath would catch and keep as pets, but was the length of her elbow to the tip of her middle finger and its soulless inky black eyes glared unblinking at her as she stumbled back on her hands and feet. The lizard beast thing opened its gaping maw, flickering a slimy forearm length blood red forked tongue and baring its long curved serrated dagger fangs at the young Ferelden girl exposing two more rows of smaller but equally sharp fangs on the roof and floor of its slimy mouth. The beast screeched and hissed at Rose as it crept closer.  
“SOMEONE, HELP ME!” Rosalie shouted as she tried to back away from the beast, the sharp rocks cutting and scraping her hands.   
The beast licked its lips like a hungry dog before it lounged at the Ferelden girl as she was pulling herself up and raked its claws along her back and side, hooked claws pulling away wool, flesh and blood. Rosalie screamed in agony as she felt the claws, she collapsed on her knees and elbows, the pain spiking in her shoulder and her ribs. She looked back at the beast, it was licking the blood from its claws before it turned its attention to her again.  
In her pain, Rosalie couldn’t hear anything, darkness was creeping on the edge of her vision and she was feeling lightheaded when a massive fuzzy shadow flew above her into the beast. Light returned to her and her vision cleared, she saw that the shadow was a very large man covered in furs. He swung a large spiky club at the beast as they fought. He swung his club at the beast as it pounced on his arm, cracking it across its jaw and knocking a few teeth loose. A strong hand grabbed Rosalie’s arm and helped her to stand, the girl looked up confused and saw a very tall woman with almost unnaturally pale skin, a soft angled face and beautiful eyes of blue green with thick silver rings that seemed to physically glow like candles at night past the shadows of the ratty hood she wore. She held Rose steady as she leaned her against the bank.  
“Are you alright, Miss?” The woman asked in a heavy accent, she was looking at Rosalie’s back.  
Rosalie was about to ask the woman who she was, but stopped when she felt soothing warmth penetrate her aching wound.  
The man shoved the salamander lizard beast into the frosty mud and with a flick of his hands, snapped its head to an unnatural angle, killing the beast.  
The man muttered something that Rosalie couldn’t understand before he picked up his club and hefted it over his shoulder.  
“Are you alright, Miss?” The man asked Rosalie with a very heavy accent that she’d certainly heard before, but couldn’t quite place.  
Rosalie nodded again despite the piercing needle pain she was starting to feel from the gaping slashes as her blood seeped from her shoulder down the back of her side staining her dresses.  
“Your god smiles upon you today, Miss,” the man continued as he helped her to her feet, “Not many Lowlanders could have scrapped with a starving Lizard Lioness and lived.”  
The man pulled back his hood revealing his face, Rosalie nearly screamed in her surprise. The man’s face itself wasn’t anything too scare worthy, he was probably forty with a rectangular face, a strong jawline and defined cheekbones. His single left eye was a deep starry grey and his reddish brown hair was cut short with a thick bushy beard reached down to his chest.   
No, the part that made Rosalie scream were the massive scars that covered almost the whole right side of the man’s face, the scars were etched through his flesh from the bridge of his nose, through the empty socket of his right eye, across his cheek and a crescent lump where his ear should be, just barely reaching the back of his head, the scarred and scabbed flesh looked similarly to cracked clay, chipped and faded exposing the fresher clay underneath, dull pinkish yellow brown on the outside with a gradual deepening to a more dull light red color the further into the skin and perhaps muscle underneath the scars got, the scar’s fissures moved together and separated apart when the man’s faced flexed and breathed.  
Rosalie screamed so loudly that the few birds still in the trees flew off and the frightened girl fainted both from stress and blood loss.

Isolda turned when she heard someone calling her name and smiled when Sidneé hurried across the square to her.  
“I’ve been hoping to see you, but with the weather and all…”  
“I know Sidneé,” Isolda said, “This winter must be harsher than usual so far. What brings you into town?”  
“Supplies and I needed to see a healer, what about you?” Sidneé asked taking Isolda’s hand in her’s, “Stocking up on supplies as well?”  
“I’m here to see a healer myself and to stop by the apothecary.”  
She saw the concern come across Sidneé’s face, “No, it’s alright, Sidneé.”  
She looked around to see if anyone was standing close enough to hear before she whispered into Sidneé’s ear, “I’m pregnant. Not many people know yet and I’ve been dealing with morning sickness for the past month or so.”  
Sidneé clasped her hands over her mouth, “Oh Maker, congratulations! On the baby part,” she hugged Isolda, carefully, “I won’t tell anybody, except James, is that alright?”   
Isolda nodded, “Oh this is perfect, I was lucky enough that I didn’t really get sick when I was pregnant. If you and Cullen need any help, please just ask. Do you need baby clothes? I have plenty of Rachel’s old baby clothes stored. Come on, I’ll walk with you.”

“My Mom is Jakobe Ulrikdotten, formerly of Clan Bán-Ghlas of Eirn,” Hugina explained showing Cullen the ashen white color skin of her body, “My Mom’s old clan was well known for our ashen pale skin and blueish or reddish eye tones from our blood curse.”  
The girl had removed her mask and physically Hugina wasn’t too dissimilar from Isolda. She had a soft square face, curved nose, and large eyes. Where the taller twenty something differed from her older half-sister was that Hugina’s eyes were a milky purple and just like her hair, her skin was abnormally pale, even paler than Cole’s and it seemed to physically glow with a soft aura of reflected light from the fireplace. Myah was sitting beside Hugina, quietly drinking the honeyed milk that Bronn had offered her. Hugina had explained that the young girl didn’t understand any Common.  
They were sitting in the main room at the table, Bronn and Cole had returned a few minutes after Hugina and Myah and now they’d been talking for nearly an hour. Cullen was starting to wonder when Isolda would get back, she’d been gone for a worryingly long time. Suddenly there was a triple knock on the door, Cullen opened it and found an Elven woman in plain white robes was standing outside with a large duffle bag on her shoulders. The woman just about came up to Cullen’s chest, her skin was a shade lighter than Vivienne’s and she had large charcoal eyes and a clean face.  
“Bonjour, are you Ser Cullen Rutherford?” The woman asked with a very thick Orlesian accent.  
“Yes, are you the maternity healer that Vivienne sent?”  
“Oui, my name is Clemenne du Mont-de-glace, pray tell, is the wife in?”  
“Actually Isolda’s in town right now, but she should be back shortly.”  
“Good, may I wait here?”  
“Of course,” Cullen stepped aside for the Elf.  
He introduced her to the family before showing her to Bronn’s room, Bronn had volunteered to sleep on the couch.  
After another half hour, Cullen couldn’t wait any longer, he stood and grabbed his coat.  
“It’s been too long,” he said, “I’m going out to look for Isolda.”  
“I’m coming too,” Hugina said, setting her mask over her face.  
Cullen nodded as he opened the door and recoiled as Axel burst through the door followed by a large man and similarly tall woman.  
“Excuse the intrusion, are you Cullen Rutherford?” The large man asked Cullen in a very thick Free folk accent, Cullen saw that he was carrying Rosalie in his arms close to his furs, she had a bloody gash in her side.  
“Yes, what happened to her?” Cullen asked looking at Rosalie.  
“She was attacked by a Black Lizard Lioness,” Axel explained, “Lucky thing that Uncle Wojtek and Maygery were within earshot of her cries for help. She’d probably be dead now if they hadn’t saved her.”  
“Will she be alright?” Cullen asked as the man carefully laid Rosalie on the couch.  
“She needs extensive healing for the blood loss,” the woman answered in a similarly thick accent, “I need at least another healer to help me clean and bandage her wounds.”  
“I’m a Healer,” Bronn said as he hurried out of his room with his supplies.  
While the woman, Maygery and Bronn got to work cleaning Rosalie’s wounds and the man, Wojtek asked Myah something in Old Tongue, Cullen took Axel aside.  
“Did you see Isolda in town?”  
“No,” Axel replied with concern, “Is she missing?”  
“She should be at the Healer’s with our dog, but I’m getting worried.”  
“Ok,” Axel said, “Let’s go look for her.”  
He turned to Wojtek and asked, “Uncle Wojtek, can you stay here in case if Issa comes back?”  
The man nodded and Cullen, Hugina and Axel left for town.

Isolda left the apothecary and whistled for Barker to follow, but he didn’t pad up to her. She whistled again and looked around the square with concern when he still didn’t come running.  
“Barker?” She called, “Here boy.”  
She noticed some paw prints that lead down an alley to the side of the shop and followed them, thinking that the hound was just sniffing something. She sighed in relief upon seeing the hound, but she stiffened when she came closer and saw that Barker was laying on his side whimpering.  
“Barker!” Isolda cried kneeling at the dog’s side, she was about to cry for help when a pair of strong hands grabbed her and shoved a cloth to her mouth. Isolda struggled as best she could but she soon blacked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve been thinking about this chapter since I started writing this story over a year ago and I’ve been writing it since July…and to be honest, I think I really should have slpit it up into at least two separate chapters.  
> But I wanted to do something special for the first anniversary of my being on the Archive.
> 
> Honestly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for reading and being patient while I organize the ramblings of my brain and my life.  
> Have a great Christmas or Hanukkah or Ramadan or even Festivus this year and thank you so much for reading.
> 
> New names to pronounce,
> 
> Wojtek, Woah-tee-ehk  
> Maygery, Mah-jer-ree  
> Myah, My-ah  
> Hugina, Hue-jin-ah  
> Munina, Moo-nee-nah  
> Egil, Ig-all  
> Axton, Axe-ten  
> Theon, Thee-on  
> Sofia, Sow-fee-ah  
> Daffinia, Dah-fee-nee-ah  
> Triffen, Trif-in  
> Jakobe, Jack-oh-bee
> 
> You don’t really have to worry about these names.  
> Vaeldir, Vall-deer  
> Svetlani, Seh-vet-lawn-ee  
> Vahn, Von  
> Miloslaw, My-low-sleh-aw  
> Borvin, Boar-fin  
> Jeryan, J-air-yawn  
> Emmarit, Ehm-maur-et  
> Walder, like Walter  
> Darianne, Dare-en-ah  
> Freydis, Free-ah-dice


	14. A Call for Family

Chapter Fourteen

“Mr Clarke?” Aurum asked the owner of the Apothecary as she entered, “Did Mrs Toryggdotten come in here earlier?”  
“Yeah, about two hours ago.”  
The Elf thanked the store owner and left the apothecary to look around the town square, unsure of what to do next. A few paw prints caught her eye, she started walking towards them, the tracks were faint and trampled over, hard to follow. Aurum stopped in her tracks when she heard a shallow whimpering from behind the building. A black Mabari hound lay on its side.  
“Barker?” Aurum asked kneeling beside the hound, “Hold on, I’ll get help.”  
The hound weakly looked up at her as hurried into the shop.  
“Mr Linden, come quick, it’s the Rutherford’s dog.”  
“Maker above,” Mr Clarke huffed as he came out and looked down at the dog, “I know nothing about dogs and neither do the healers.”  
“Can you look after him while I go get the Rutherfords?”  
Mr Clarke helped Aurum get Barker into his shop.  
“Aurum!” A voice came behind her, she looked and saw Mr Rutherford and three others running up. A large man, a masked woman, and a pale skinned boy.  
“Mr Rutherford, I was about to come find you.”  
“Where’s Isolda?” Cullen asked, “What happened to him?”  
“I found him like this, around the back.”  
“Cullen,” the masked woman said, “This means somethings happened to Issa.”  
“Aye,” the large man replied, “Issa would never leave your hound like this-look at the snow, someone must’ve taken her.”  
“Cullen,” the masked woman said, “You and Axel go ring the town bell, I’ll stay here with your dog.”  
Cullen, Aurum and Axel hurried to the town bell, they were stopped by a guard but Axel grabbed him by his chest plate and hurled him halfway across the square. Aurum climbed up and rung the bell as hard as she could. Nearly everyone in town showed up including the Arl.  
“Everyone!” Cullen shouted, “Everyone, I think that someone’s kidnapped my wife, they attacked my mabari and left him behind the apothecary’s. She’s pregnant, we need to find her!”  
“Did anybody see anything strange earlier?!” Axel shouted firmly, everybody looked around amongst each other but no one volunteered any information. Cullen stared in disbelief as no one moved.  
“Why should we?!” someone shouted.  
“I heard that fucking half breed ain’t even your’s!” someone else shouted.  
“Good fucking riddance!” a third person shouted.  
“See the Light, Ser Rutherford,” a Chantry Sister pleaded, “Please abandon the heathen witch.”  
“You Filthy Heathens!” Axel’s voice thundered so loudly the whole square flinched, “How dare you fucking say such things after my sister saved you from a fate worse than death!”  
The Arl came forth to Cullen, “I don’t know how these rumors started, but we don’t have time to get to the bottom of that. We need to find Isolda and make sure she’s safe, Maker be damned if we didn’t repay not just her service but your’s as well.”  
The Arl turned to his men, “Group into search parties and start looking! If anyone refuses they will be suspected of treason and hanged!”  
He turned to Cullen, “Take your mabari to my kennel master, she’ll heal him. The rest of us while scour my Arling, we’ll find her, Ser.”  
Cullen nodded.  
“I’m actually a bit sorry for the bastards who kidnapped her,” Axel commented.  
“Why’s that?” The Arl asked.  
“My dear sister is called the She-Bear with good reason, My Lord, you won’t see those kidnappers.”  
“Cullen, the pale boy,” Hugina came running up, “He said he was gonna find Issa.”  
“Arl Bryland, sir!” A Guardswoman came running up, “Captain Davison says he might know someone behind this, sir.”  
“Well?” The Arl asked impatiently, “Who is it, Guardswoman?”  
“Samson Swann and Richard Linden both never reported in sir.”

When Isolda came too it was at least dusk and she found herself in the back of a wagon traveling over rough terrain. Lying still, Isolda felt that her hand was restrained and her coat was gone. There was also a sickeningly sweet berry taste in her mouth, Isolda recognized it as poisons used in abortions. She coughed and spat, trying to rid herself of the taste.  
“She’s awake,” a gruff sounding voice said.  
“We’re far enough out,” a younger voice replied, “Come on-this is risky enough as it is without getting lost in the dark and they’ve already rung the town bell.”  
“Let’s get this over with,” the gruff voice said, “She said she’d sleep with me if we did this.”  
They pulled the wagon to the side and both men got down. The younger man pulled Isolda roughly by her arm and braced it behind her back.  
“Hold the freak steady, Linden,” the older man instructed the younger one as he advanced on her with a bottle, “They can’t use magic with their hands restricted.”  
Isolda didn’t recognize either man, but she could tell they were at least soldiers. The older gruffer man was probably in his late forties or early fifties, he was stout of build with thick arms, peppering dark grey hair and a healed scar that dragged across his cheek and mouth that was missing several teeth.  
The man bracing her arm with an unsteady grip could barely be called a man if not an old boy. He was tall but skinny like Bronn, with a young unscarred face, blueish black hair and green eyes.  
“We’ve already given you a half dose, you heathen cunt,” the gruff man sneered at Isolda like a hunter cornering a yearling, “You think that you can blur the lines just because you thought you won over those fucking Lions?”  
He reached his fist out grabbing Isolda’s jaw, he wrenched open her mouth and poured the poison inside. He then dropped the bottle and pulled out a knife, hooking the cold steel into her cheek, he sliced through. Isolda felt sharp needle pain course through her face as nerves and muscles were severed and blood gushed out a dripped down her neck, but she didn’t pay it any attention because her focus was squarely on her baby. She could feel her belly cramp and stir and her limbs felt like they were boiling. A heavy painful thud filled her mind as it reeled for an idea, anything.  
“You should’ve known better than to stay in South Reach to raise your filthy half breed spawn with that fucking worthless traitor!” The gruff man cackled maniacally as he flicked the blade against Isolda’s neck drawing blood.  
“My husband is twice the man you ever were,” Isolda firmly annunciated past the gaping bloody slash through her cheek as her eyes first bled yellow before turning blood red, “And you should’ve known better than to attack a bear when her cub is threatened.”  
Isolda reared back and crashed her head into the young man’s face, she felt his nose crack and splinter underneath her hair and beads, she brought up a boot into the crotch of the gruff man before bringing her other boot into his neck as he bent over in pain making him cough up blood. She grabbed the bindings on her hand and while ignoring the pain, she lit her hand on fire and burned the bindings. She pounced on the gruff man with her hand still ablaze grabbed his face and pushed her thumb into his eye. The man screamed in blood curdling agony as the flesh of his face started to burn and boil under her flame.  
“Must protect them,” Isolda could only think of protecting her cub at that moment, “Must protect them.”  
The man clawed at her arm trying to get her off of him, but the witch held fast as her fingernails thickened and lengthened into hooked claws that pierced into the man’s flesh, skull and perhaps even his brain as her thumb jabbed into his eye, breaking through and hooking into the back of his eye socket as flame boiled the jelly inside.  
The young man had gotten up and grabbed at Isolda’s arm trying to pry her off of his friend, but the man Isolda was latched onto had ceased moving. Isolda released her claws and watched as the corpse fell back into the snow, steam and mist wafting from his empty eye socket and blistered face filling the air with the sickening smell of charred flesh. Isolda stomached the smell as she turned to the other man, who was now running away through a snow field.  
Sighing, she unhooked an earring from her ear, lifted her hand at the man and snapped her index, middle and thumb fingers creating an earsplitting crack that echoed as a needle thin bolt of green colored lightning pierced the frozen air around Isolda making her teeth hurt as the earring rocketed out across the snow covered field leaving a path clear of snow in its wake before striking the man in his back causing him to crumple into the snow ahead of him.  
Isolda gritted her teeth as her fingernails grew back, she then stuck two of her fingers into her mouth, squeezed her uvula and vomited until all she could vomit into the muddy road was steaming water. She wiped her bloody mouth and slowly made her way out to the man in the field. She found him breathing very shallowly, she slowly turned him over and cracked her knuckles before gently placing her hand on his chest. His heart and lungs were most likely fried to a crisp and his spine probably was shattered. Isolda’s hand warmed with healing magic and focused it into the man’s heart and lungs, there wasn’t anything she could do for his spine. He’d be crippled forever, if he survived.  
“Your friend said the person who asked you to do this was a woman, who is she?”  
The man said nothing as he grunted and wheezed in pain trying to breath.  
“Did Mia Rutherford ask you to kill me?”  
Linden continued to look up at Isolda before he shook his head and painfully spat, “No.”  
“Then who did?”  
“I don’t know, Samson didn’t tell me who, but I know it wasn’t Mia, they don’t talk.”  
Isolda looked back at the horse and wagon, she could conceivably drag the boy and bring him back to town, but again he would be paralyzed for the rest of his life. Isolda took his shoulder and pulled him over the field to the horse and wagon. She picked up the poison bottle and cut the horse from the wagon yoke and helped Linden pull himself over the back. She climbed up and lead the horse down the to South Reach.

The town bell, which could be heard for a couple of miles around on such a clear night, attracted the attention of all the outlying farmers, including Zachery, Mia and Jeannette, who had finished enjoying a nice meal before Jeannette had to return to Denerim the following day to continue her training.  
“What’s going on?” Zachery asked as he got up to grab his sword, “Bandits?”  
“I don’t know,” Jeannette responded as all three bundled for the weather.  
When they made it into town, they found a massive gathering of people and at the centre was Cullen and the Arl. While Sidneé and James talked with Zachery and Jeannette, Mia hurriedly pushed through the crowd up to her little brother.  
“Cullen,” Mia asked when she’d finally made it up to his side, “What happened?”  
“Isolda’s missing,” He replied sorrowfully on the verge of tears, “Someone must’ve kidnapped her.”  
Mia’s face went pale, Cullen saw this and before Mia could react he had grabbed her by her woolen coat and slammed her hard against the bell pole.  
“What did you do?!” Cullen shouted harshly, demanding to know anything about Isolda’s safety.  
“Nothing, nothing,” Mia held up her hands in a weak defense, “I swear by the Maker, little brother, I don’t know what happened.”  
“Cullen,” a pale skinned woman with a mask on her forehead grabbed his forearm, “Think of Issa.”  
“I don’t have the time or the energy to deal with your bullshit right now!” Cullen spat at his sister, shoving her back onto the frozen stones of the square, “For your sake, you’d better be telling the truth, Mia, or you’ll truly know the pain of loss.”  
Mia picked herself up and as she wiped the filth from her hands she thought, Isolda was missing and where she had expected to feel the slightest twinge of pride, instead, she felt a twinge of pained sorrow at the thought of losing her unborn niece or nephew. With that thought, came the anxiety filled thought of Alexi being involved. She made her way through the crowds to Alexi’s home. Determined to learn the truth.

Isolda stumbled into the snow, the howling freezing winds sliced through her clothing causing her to shiver and her teeth to chatter. She was getting flashbacks of Haven, though at the time she’d transformed herself into her she bear and she wasn’t pregnant at the time. It was to risky to transform any further than her hands.  
“How far are we?!” She shouted back to Linden over the winds, there was no answer.  
She looked over to the horse and found that it had collapsed onto its side in the snow and Linden was a frozen corpse.  
Isolda weakly turned away from her failure and struggled to stand she took another few dozen steps before collapsing to her knees again. The stabbing overwhelming pain from the frozen winds howled against her skin so bitterly, Isolda swore she could hear the ferocious roars of Sigfrost himself. The Witch tried to ignite fire to warm her, but the winds were so overwhelming that not even a spark could be brought forth. She tried desperately to stand again but she couldn’t feel her legs anymore.  
“Cullen…” the witch whimpered weakly as she looked up in bitter defeat through frozen tears to the cloudy skies above her, “Please be safe.”  
Isolda blinked her eyes free of tears when she saw a glowing light approach her.  
“Who’s there?!” She weakly tried to ask over the winds.  
The light gave no answer as it glowed brighter and brighter until she saw the source, a massive bear stepping out of the bitter howling winds. The bear was easily a large boulder, covered in beautiful long shaggy fur the color of pure ice, his eyes were roaring blue bonfires made of lyrium and his claws were curved swords of pure steel soaked in the crimson blood of the thousands of Avvar that had dared to climbed his master’s mountain.  
Isolda could only stare at the magnificent bear god, Sigfrost, as he stepped closer and closer to where she knelt. He lifted his colossal paw to her and it turned into the strong gloved hand of a warrior who wore the ancient lamellar and chainmail armors in the style of the ancient Alamarri warrior men and women who had conquered the fertile valleys of Ferelden and the Plains of the True South, the curved plates of the lamellar armor was made of pure ice that glowed a brilliant blue mist while the chainmail halberd shirt was made of red gold, his wide shoulders covered by a thick pelt of icy white bear fur with the bear head sitting on his shoulder. His strong rectangular face had a chiseled jawline with strong cheekbones, his long nose was strong and blunt, his eyes were the color of glowing lyrium ringed in starlight and his long blonde hair was knotted behind his head and his long fiery blonde beard had three forks each with seven rings of Black Iron, Red Steel, Silverite, Bloodstone, Stormheart, Paragon’s Virtue and Everite.  
Sigfrost firmly held onto Isolda helping her stand on her once frozen legs.  
“What?!” Isolda asked, she felt her frozen legs warm and pin needles barreled through them.  
Sigfrost smiled down at her as he dissolved into icy mist with the howling bitter winds. Isolda looked down to her hand, she held a silver bear claw.  
“Isolda!” a voice called out over the winds and Isolda saw Cole approaching, his quilted longcoat blustering behind him like a flat checkered tail.  
“Cole?” Isolda whispered as she fell into the snow, her legs loosing their strength.  
Cole gathered the witch in his arms, “I’m here to help you,” Cole reassured her as he helped her to stand and tried to warm her.

Cullen saw the wagon tracks in the muddy snow in the early morning light and he prodded his loan horse forward followed closely by Clemenne, Hugina and Axel trudging behind them, being far to big for any horse that Arl Bryland had to offer. Hugina had jokingly told the Arl that Axel’s name meant Forever Walking, Axel nearly broke the pale girl’s mask for that joke.  
They were well ahead of the rest of the search parties’ torches and the early pink light was starting to peek over the trees. The winds and snow had died down and only the stillness and cold bit harshly at Cullen through his coat. He was getting flashbacks to Haven, trudging through the snow and cold trying desperately to find her. Where Cullen shivered, Axel and Hugina both seemingly paid the cold no mind. Hugina fumbled for her mask, even in the early dawn light her face had a soft misty glow and her breath forming clouds before she reattached it upon the wrapping hood so the mask would cover her face just as a few beams of light hit her.  
“Does everyone in your tribe have such pale skin?” Clemenne asked Hugina.  
“Yes,” Hugina replied past her mask, “nearly all, how you say-” she called up to Axel and asked him something in Old Tongue.  
“Five hundred,” he replied.  
“Yes, nearly all five hundred of us are infected with our clan’s blood curse.”  
“And what is a blood curse?” Clemenne asked.  
Hugina stopped her horse and looked at the Healer, “Imagine if your own ears marked you as cursed before all of your gods and every waking moment is the agony of knowing that you cannot do anything to atone their hatred of you because your people hundreds of years ago defied them.”  
There was a very long silence before Axel lifted his sword from his back.  
“I see something,” he called back as he hurried up ahead through the heavy snow. Cullen looked up and saw dark shapes further in the distance against the now bright dawn lit snow, Cole and Isolda crouching beside a half buried shape.  
Anxiety turned to Relief which slowly turned back into anxiety as he got closer he saw Cole cradling Isolda, her face grey, her nose and lips were both blue and she had a gaping slash in her cheek covered in black frozen blood. Cullen slid off his horse and hurried over, collapsing by her side.  
“Love,” he whispered to his wife, gently placing his hands on her shoulders, “What happened?”  
“Unforeseen consequences,” Cole muttered.  
“What?”  
“The boy didn’t want to do it,” he responded pointing to the frozen horse and frozen corpse, “Called it the dumbest plan he’d ever heard and upon his death cursed his younger sister’s and Samson’s names for convincing him to attack the witch.”  
Cullen looked down and saw that she was asleep and breathing shallowly. He heard shuffling beside him and one of Axel’s spade sized paw came forth holding a ball of fibrous kindling which sparked to life with fire. Clemenne squatted in front of Isolda and felt her slashed cheek, “Jaggedly cut, merde, at least it wasn’t her throat,” she grabbed the bottle in Isolda’s hand and licked the contents, she sharply spat it out into the snow, she muttered something in Orlesian as her hand shot to Isolda’s belly before shooting down under Isolda’s dress between her legs, “No blood, she must’ve known what it was and spat it out, good.”  
“What happened?”  
Clemenne held up the bottle for Cullen to see it had an emblem of a double headed swan, “Crone’s Fury, when it’s used on pregnant women it can force an abortion and it’s highly lethal like Ricin and Cyanid but only in high amounts, both Chantries had outlawed its use before the Tower Age.”  
“Why would…?”  
“Someone doesn’t want you and Issa to have children,” Hugina said.  
“Yes, Crone’s Fury can cause infertility as well, though that would require at least a full gallon over several days,” Clemenne finished.  
“Mount up, I need to run some tests, Axel’ll lift her up to you, wrap her in your coat.”  
Axel exhausted his flame and he and Hugina carefully picked their sister up and carefully placed her into Cullen’s arms once he’d gotten up on his horse. After the got Isolda into Cullen’s lap, Axel removed his woolen blue and black tartan cloak and Cullen wrapped it around Isolda, the heavy garment was easily several sizes to big for her and draped slightly off the underside of the horse.  
The group made their way back to South Reach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was easily the hardest chapter to write so far. I have the whole story written out now, I’m just revising it to make it as coherent as I can.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading and leaving kudos.


End file.
